Walter Crane's

The absurd ABC
originally published 1874.

Walter Crane was born in Liverpool in 1845, the son of a successful artist, Thomas Crane. In 1851 the family made the decision to move to London in the hope that Thomas would find more clients. Sadly just as he began establishing himself in the London Market, he was taken ill and died. As soon as he was able, the young Walter obtained an apprenticeship to ease the financial burden of his widowed mother. He was taken under the wing of William Linton who ran an Engraving Shop. Linton was a political activist and had been a member of the Chartist Movement in the late 1840's.These early socialist ideals were to have a lasting effect on the young Walter Crane.

With Linton helping crane to get commissions, he quickly established himself with reputation of a talented book illustrator. By the 1870's he was specializing in children's books, even so he still found time to exhibit at the Royal Academy. By 1881 he had become a close friend of William Morris and was active in the Arts & Crafts Movement. The two men were deeply depressed by the way modern manufacturing was going and publicly deplored the commercial development of craftsmanship and design. Under William Morris's influence Walter Crane blossomed, he went on to experiment with wall paper designs, patterned fabrics and even ceramics

In 1892 all his experience came to fruition, when he published what has become his most influential book, The Claims of Decorative Art. In this he argued that art could not flourish in a world that was so unjust. Crane claimed that only under "Socialism could Use and Beauty be united"

At Christmas, in 1914, just at the start of World War l, Crane's wife of forty-four years was killed by a train. Crane was completely distraught and died of a broken heart, in the following spring.

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