Laurence Housman, poet, essayist, novelist, and playwright, sometimes said he had written too much. His more than eighty literary works might lend credence to that idea, but it is his work in drama that seems most likely to endure. His play Prunella (1904), written in collaboration with Harley Granville Barker, was a popular success in London and New York during the early years of this century, and Victoria Regina (1935) made dramatic history on both sides of the Atlantic. He probably became best known to the British public through his Little Plays of St. Francis (1922), which were widely produced by church and amateur groups for several decades. He was also considered the most censored of British dramatists.

The sixth of seven children, Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His oldest brother, Alfred Edward, was well known for his verse, especially A Shropshire Lad (1896). An older sister, Clemence, a writer and...