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Unseen Hands: Women Printers, Binders and Book Designers    
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Clemence Housman
British, 1861-1955

The latest (5th) edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature makes no mention of the novelist, short story writer, artist, and suffragist Clemence Housman, not even in the articles about her two brothers, Laurence (1865-1959), also a novelist, poet, and artist, and A. E. (1859-1936), who wrote some of the most famous and best loved poems in the language, including A Shropshire Lad.

Leonard Baskin's notes for his portrait of Clemence state that her wood engravings, which illustrated most of Laurence's books, are "special and entrancing." The noteworthy pair on view in this exhibition is her Were-Wolf with his illustrations, and his Blue Moon with hers.

The Were-Wolf, by Clemence Housman

The Were-Wolf, by Clemence Housman; with six illustrations by Laurence Housman. London: John Lane at the Bodley Head; Chicago: Way and Williams, 1896.
Rare Books Division

 

The Blue Moon, engraved by Clemence Housman

The Blue Moon, by Laurence Housman, engraved by Clemence Housman. London : John Murray, 1904.
Firestone Library

 

Portrait of Clemence Housman, by Leonard Baskin

Portrait of Clemence Housman, by Leonard Baskin
Color etching, 1988
Graphic Arts Division
Copyright Estate of Leonard Baskin

 
 
 

Princeton University Library, Graphic Arts Collection
Rebecca W. Davidson, Curator of Graphic Arts
davidson@princeton.edu
Tel: (609) 258-3197
Last Modified: February 13, 2004