William Morris preferred to work in the company of friends, creative collaborators with whom he shared an artistic and spiritual worldview. It has often been argued that these collective endeavors, like those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to which Morris was partially connected, pre-empt the notion of the avant-garde which held sway over radical artistic culture for much of the following century. If the definition of the avant-garde involves a radical, collective aesthetic vision infused with utopian political aims, then Morris's and his companions' activities certainly fit the bill.