Short answers, pulled from the story.
During his lifetime, William Morris was best known primarily as a poet. Obituaries in the national press at the time of his death in October 1896 recognised him mainly in that role. He became better known posthumously for his textile and decorative designs.
Morris founded the original firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., in April 1861, with six partners including Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Philip Webb. In March 1875 he assumed sole control and renamed it Morris and Co.
Tolkien considered much of his literary work to have been inspired by Morris's writing and suggested he was unable to better it; the names "Gandolf" and the horse Silverfax appear in Morris's novel The Well at the World's End. The Wood Beyond the World is considered to have heavily influenced Lewis's Narnia series.
Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in March 1877 after being appalled by architectural restoration programmes that destroyed genuine old features to replace them with what he called "sham old" ones. He personally referred to the organisation as "Anti-Scrape."
Morris joined the Democratic Federation in January 1883, served on its executive committee, and left in December 1884 when it became the Social Democratic Federation. He then founded the Socialist League, editing its newspaper Commonweal for six years, before leaving in autumn 1890 when anarchists took control.
Morris founded the Kelmscott Press as a private press in January 1891, dedicated to producing limited-edition books in an illuminated-manuscript style. It published the celebrated Kelmscott Chaucer and Morris designed three typefaces and around 650 borders and ornamental designs for its publications.