Book Description

Excerpt from The Pilgrims of Hope and Chants for Socialists The Pilgrims Of Hope was originally written for and contributed by William Morris to the early issues of The Commonweal, The Official Journal of the [London] Socialist League, during 1885-86. Shortly after its termination in July, 1886, the poem was brought together and privately reprinted by Mr. H. Buxton Forman with the following introductory Note: "When a few sections of this poem had appeared in The Commonweal many besides myself thought that The Pilgrims of Hope was not only a beautiful work, but by its subject and treatment highly important to educated readers. On the appearance of the last part, I tried to persuade Mr. Morris to publish the whole at once as a volume. He demurred, saying that the matter needed consideration and that the poem might want much revision. In several talks I upheld the view that it was not for such a work as this to lie buried in a socialist newspaper concerned mainly in questions of immediate politics, and so fail to come into the hands of more than a few among the reading classes who have his works in their libraries, as a permanent source of pleasure and profit. Failing to carry the point, I said we must have the poem in book form somehow, and that I would print a short issue in a decent manner privately for friends. Being unforbidden, I have proceeded to carry out my project; and indeed it has not been difficult to persuade the poet that a dozen or two copies cherished in libraries where the rest of his poems are lovingly guarded do not add one whit to the publicity of the book pending the arrival of the time when he may set about revising it for general circulation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.