HOUSMAN, LAURENCE (1865— ), English writer and artist, was born on June 18, 1865. Having studied at South Kensington, he first made a reputation as a book illustrator. Some of his best pictorial work may be seen in the editions of Mere dith's Jump to Glory Jane (1892), the Weird Tales of Jonas Lie (1892), Jane Barlow's Land of Elfintoun (1894), Christina Ros setti's Goblin Market (1893), Werewolf (1896), by his sister, Miss Clemence Housman, Shelley's Sensitive Plant (1898), and his own Farm in Fairyland (1894). His designs were engraved on wood by Miss Housman. His volumes of verse include Green Arras (1896), Rue (1899), Spikenard (1898) and Mendicant Rhymes (1906) ; and the mysticism which characterizes the de votional poems in Spikenard recurs in his half-allegorical tales, All Fellows (1896), The Blue Moon (19o4) and The Cloak of Friendship (1906). His nativity play, Bethlehem, was presented in the Great Hall of London University at South Kensington for a week in Dec. 1902. In 1900 he published anonymously An Eng lishwoman's Love Letters, and followed this essay in popular fic tion by the novels A Modern Antaeus (19o1) and Sabrina War ham (19o4). On Dec. 23, 1904, his fantastic and moving play Prunella, written in collaboration with Mr. Granville Barker, was produced at the Court Theatre. His later works include Angels and Ministers ( 1921) and Little Plays of St. Francis (1922).