Biography
“Following the remarkable success of A Shropshire Lad by his brother A. E. Housman in 1896, he laboured for the following four years as a poet, novelist, art critic and illustrator ‘under the shadow of that bright cloud.’” Then in 1900 he published An Englishwoman's Love letters, an epistolary novel that became a best-seller, “heralding the Edwardian sex novel” (Jonathan Wild).
"Laurence Housman, one of the most innovative or influential illustrators of the 1890s, in a brief career of less than ten years, created some of the most striking black and white illustrations of the period. His original meticulously drawn pen and ink drawings remain rare today. His first sucsess was his illustrated edition of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market. (Fairy Folk).
Biographical material
- Laurence and A. E. Housman: Rivalry between brothers
- Housman's income as author and illustrator
- What we remember and what we forget
Writings
Literary and artistic relations
- Housman's admiration for John Ruskin
- How Housman almost didn't meet Granville Barker (with whom he wrote Prunella)
- “Incomparably the most accomplished talker I have ever met”: reminiscences of Oscar Wilde
- Housman's "play-cycles — chapters of dramatic biography"
Religion
Social history: themes and contexts
- "The parish church of my youth . . . a fortress for class-distinction"
- “The savage imposition of ignorance . . . on virgin minds”: the harmful effects of Victorian prudery
Related Material
Bibliography
Wild, Jonathan. “A loosening of silk ribbons: Laurence Housman, John Murray, and the publishing sensation of 1900.” Times Literary Supplement (November 2, 2012): 14-15.
Last modified 19 November 2012