Laurence Housman


Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator.

Early life

Laurence Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of seven children including an older brother and sister, the classical scholar and poet A. E. Housman and the writer Clemence Housman. In 1871 his mother died, and his father remarried, to a cousin. After education at Bromsgrove School, he went with his sister Clemence to study art at the Lambeth School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.

Illustrating

He first worked with London publishers by illustrating such works as George Meredith's Jump to Glory Jane, Jonas Lie's Weird Tales, Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, Jane Barlow's The End of Elfintown and his sister's novella The Were-Wolf in an intricate Art Nouveau style. During this period, he also wrote and published several volumes of poetry and a number of hymns and carols.

Writing

Housman turned more and more to writing after his eyesight began to fail.
His first literary success came with the novel An Englishwoman's Love-letters, published anonymously. He then turned to drama with Bethlehem and was to become best known and remembered as a playwright. His other dramatic works include Angels and Ministers, Little Plays of St. Francis and Victoria Regina which was even staged on Broadway. Housman's play, Pains and Penalties, about Queen Caroline, was produced by Edith Craig and the Pioneer Players.
Some of Housman's plays were scandalous for depicting biblical characters and living members of the Royal House on stage, and many of them were performed only privately until the subsequent relaxation of theatrical censorship. In 1937 the Lord Chamberlain ruled that no British sovereign may be portrayed on the stage until 100 years after his or her accession. For this reason, Victoria Regina could not be staged until the centenary of Queen Victoria's accession, 20 June 1937. This was a Sunday, so the premiere took place the next day.
Housman also wrote children's fairy tales such as A Farm in Fairyland and fantasy stories with Christian undertones for adults, such as All-Fellows, The Cloak of Friendship, and Gods and Their Makers.
A prolific writer with around a hundred published works to his name, his output eventually covered all kinds of literature from socialist and pacifist pamphlets to children's stories. He wrote an autobiography, The Unexpected Years, which, despite his record of controversial writing, said little about his homosexuality, the practice of which was then illegal.
After his brother's A.E.'s death in 1936, Laurence was made literary executor, and over the next two years brought out further selections of poems from his brother's manuscripts. His editorial work has been deprecated recently: "The text of many poems was misrepresented: poems not completed by Housman were printed as though complete; versions he cancelled were reinstated; separate texts were conflated; and many poems were mistranscribed from the manuscripts."

Activism

Housman held political views that were controversial. He was a committed socialist and pacifist and founded the Men's League for Women's suffrage with Henry Nevinson and Henry Brailsford in 1907. He was also a member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology and the Order of Chaeronea.
In 1909 Laurence and sister Clemence founded the Suffrage Atelier, an arts and crafts society that worked closely with the Women's Social and Political Union and Women's Freedom League. They encouraged non-professional artists to submit work, and paid them a small percentage of the profits. In 1911 the Anti-Suffrage Alphabet, written by Housman and edited by Leonora Tyson, was published in London.
In 1945 he opened Housmans Bookshop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, founded in his honour by the Peace Pledge Union, of which he was a sponsor. In 1959, shortly after his death, the shop moved to Caledonian Road, where it is still a source of literature on pacifism and other radical approaches to living.

Later life

After World War I, Laurence and Clemence left their Kensington home and moved to the holiday cottage which they had previously rented in the village of Ashley in Hampshire. They lived there until 1924, when they moved to Street, Somerset, where Laurence lived the last 35 years of his life.

Posthumous recognition

His name and picture are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

Published writings

Source: Open Library list of his works.
This list includes no publications by Housman as illustrator only.

Novels