- HOUSMAN, Laurence
- (1865-1959)UK writer, brother of the poet A.E. Housman (1859-1936) and best known for his plays and for several volumes of fantasy stories, including Gods and their Makers (coll 1897; with stories added, vt Gods and Their Makers and Other Stories coll 1920), What Next? Provocative Tales of Faith and Morals (coll 1938),Strange Ends and Discoveries (coll1948) 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 some of his plays, such as Possession (1921), are also of fantasy interest, as is his novel Trimblerigg (1924).Closer to an sf interest are his two RURITANIAN tales, John of Jingalo: The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties (1912; vt King John of Jingalo 1912 US) and its sequel The Royal Runaway, and Jingalo in Revolution (1914); in both novels there is a running commentary on UTOPIAN social solutions, particularly with regard to WOMEN's rights.JCOther works: All-Fellows: Seven Legends of Lower Redemption (coll 1896) and The Cloak of Friendship (coll 1905), both assembled with 1 additional story as All-Fellows and the Cloak of Friendship (omni 1924); The House of Joy (coll 1895) and The Field of Clover (coll 1898), both recast, with A Farm in Fairyland, as Moonshine and Clover (coll 1922) and A Doorway to Fairyland (coll 1923); The Blue Moon (coll 1904); Ironical Tales (coll 1926); What O'Clock Tales (coll 1932), juvenile fables.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.