Art and Socialism was delivered, as a lecture, to the Leicester Secular Society on January 23rd, 1884; the event was reported in Justice on February 2nd. The text had previously been delivered as a two-part lecture under the title Art and the People: where are we going? to the Hampstead Town Club in June 1883.
"Art and Socialism's outstanding feature is perhaps the stress laid on work as a necessity of human life, not merely as a means of obtaining a livelihood. Morris insists that only Socialism can restore work to its proper, central position." — A. L. Morton.
First published as a pamphlet at Leek, 1884 reprinted in The Collected Works of William Morris, XXIII, 192-214, Cole, 624-45, Jackson, 96-I 14 and and Political Writings of William Morris, ed. A. L. Morton, 109-133.
Art and Socialism was transcribed from the Political Writings of William Morris by Chris Croome for the William Morris Internet Archive, a subarchive of the Marxists Internet Archive, in November 1997.