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Housman, Laurence

Entry updated 26 June 2023. Tagged: Author, Theatre.

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(1865-1959) UK playwright and author, brother of Clemence Housman, whose The Were-Wolf (1896) he illustrated [for differently focused entries on both Housman and his sister, see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], and of the poet A E Housman (1859-1936). During his life Housman was best known for his plays and for several volumes of fantasy and sf stories, including Gods and Their Makers (1897; with stories added, vt as coll, Gods and Their Makers and Other Stories 1920), The Blue Moon (coll 1904), The Cloak of Friendship (coll 1905), What-o'Clock Tales (coll 1932), What Next?: Provocative Tales of Faith and Morals (coll 1938), Strange Ends and Discoveries: Tales of This World and the Next (coll 1948) and The Kind and the Foolish: Short Tales of Myth, Magic and Miracle (coll 1952). Some of his work for children, such as his first book, A Farm in Fairyland (coll 1894) and Turn Again Tales (coll 1931), and some of his plays, such as Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise (1921), are also of fantasy interest.

Of more direct sf interest are the two Ruritanian John of Jingalo tales, John of Jingalo: The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties (1912; vt King John of Jingalo 1912) and The Royal Runaway and Jingalo in Revolution: (A Sequel to John of Jingalo) (1914); in both novels there is a running commentary on Utopian social solutions, particularly with regard to women's rights (see Women in SF). Housman was actively involved in early twentieth-century Feminist campaigns, including women's suffrage. [JC]

Laurence Housman

born Bromsgrove, Worcestershire: 18 July 1865

died Glastonbury, Somerset: 20 February 1959

works (highly selected)

series

John of Jingalo

individual titles

collections and stories

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