LAURENCE HOUSMAN, British playwright, born (d: 1959); It might have been genetic or perhaps there was something in the water at Fockbury, or maybe it was the splendid name itself, but the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Housman of Fockbury were all Gay.

There was the poet and classicist, A.E. Housman, whom we’ve already met, and sister Clemence, who was a wood engraver and a Lesbian. Laurence Housman began as a well-known book illustrator, working, in part, together with Clemence who turned his fine designs into wood engravings.

A fine selection of his engravings and woodcuts are here: https://www.pinterest.com/verenalewis/laurence-housman/ 

Occasionally, Clemence wrote books of her own, like Werewolves, that were illustrated by her brother. Eventually Laurence became even better known as a playwright of some repute, a career he undertook at about the time that he was known about London as one of Oscar Wilde’s most intimate friends.

Housman’s one great triumph occurred when he was close to eighty years of age, and this was the production of his play Victoria Regina (1937), which made household names of his and Helen Hayes’s names. It is the play that gave the American actress a new first name, “Miss,” a title that stuck to her like a moray eel ever since.