Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman (1865-1959) was an English playwright and illustrator, renowned for his artistic contributions and literary works. Born into a family of seven siblings, including the famous poet A.E. Housman, Laurence pursued art in London from a young age. He gained recognition for his illustrations, notably for Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Sensitive Plant." However, as his eyesight deteriorated, Housman shifted his focus to writing, producing mythic tales and poems.
His literary career includes the anonymously published "An Englishwoman's Love-Letters," which stirred controversy upon its release in 1900. Housman faced significant challenges with censorship, having the most plays banned by the Lord Chamberlain, including his notable work "Bethlehem." Despite this, he found success with collaborations like "Prunella" and innovative formats in his later works, such as "Victoria Regina," a play that dramatizes scenes from Queen Victoria's life. Housman's pioneering techniques in dramatic structure, particularly the use of vignette-style narratives, have influenced modern theater and television drama significantly.
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Laurence Housman
Playwright
- Born: July 18, 1865
- Birthplace: Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England
- Died: February 20, 1959
Biography
Laurence Housman was one of seven siblings, one of whom was the poet A. E. Housman. He left his family’s home in Bromsgrove, in the English county of Worcestershire, at age eighteen to study art in London. A gifted illustrator, Housman is still remembered for his superb illustrations of such books as the 1893 edition of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market (1862) and the 1898 edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Sensitive Plant (1820). Yet despite his success in the field, Laurence was forced to turn to writing around when his eyesight began to fail, leaving him unable to earn his living through his art. A lifelong bachelor, he lived for most of his life with his older sister Clemence, also an author and illustrator, who had accompanied him to London in 1883 to study.
Housman’s earliest publications consisted of mythic tales, legends, and poems. In 1900, however, an anonymous work titled An Englishwoman’s Love-Letters appeared in London, the prurient subject matter of which caused considerable consternation and speculation about its authorship. Some even proposed that Queen Victoria might be the author. Finally, Laurence Houseman admitted that he had written the sensational book.
In 1902, Housman produced Bethlehem, a play about Christ’s nativity, and in doing so had his first of many brushes with the Lord Chamberlain’s office. The office immediately banned the play because the law stated that sacred religious figures could not appear as characters on the British stage. This act of censorship did not extend to performances in private venues such as churches or dramatic societies, so the play, although banned, was nevertheless accessible, and those who saw it liked it. Housman holds the distinction of having had the most plays banned by the Lord Chamberlain, with thirty-two of his plays on the banned list at the same time.
Housman collaborated with Harley Granville-Barker on the play Prunella (1906), which proved highly successful and was presented at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre. He also experimented with several forms of dramatic structure, as in his 1922 publication Little Plays of St. Francis, a collection of three short plays dramatizing different aspects of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Housman used this same technique much more fully in his most celebrated play, Victoria Regina: A Dramatic Biography (1934), a series of thirty one-act plays depicting scenes throughout Queen Victoria’s life. An abridged version of the play was a resounding success in London, where it had to be presented privately, and even more so in New York, where it was staged in 1935 with Helen Hayes in the role of Victoria.
Housman is often credited with inventing the dramatic technique of presenting brief vignettes that, using a collage effect and taken as a whole, produce a cohesive view of a subject. This "play cycle" technique is evident in many current television dramas.
Bibliography
Doussot, Audrey. "Laurence Housman (1865–1959): Fairy Tale Teller, Illustrator and Aesthete." Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 73 (2011): 131–45. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
"From the Archive, 18 July 1957: Mr Laurence Housman at 92." Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 July 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
Innes, Christopher. "Housman, Laurence." The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Ed. Martin Banham. New ed. 1995. New York: Cambridge UP, 2000. 500. Print.
Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. "Laurence Housman (1865–1959)." The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Kooistra. Ryerson U, 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
"Laurence Housman." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 26 June 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
Monaco, Pamela. "Laurence Housman (1865–1959)." British Playwrights, 1880–1956: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Ed. William W. Demastes and Katherine E. Kelly. Westport: Greenwood, 1996. 225–36. Print.
Oakley, Elizabeth. Inseparable Siblings: A Portrait of Clemence and Laurence Housman. Studley: Brewin, 2009. Print.