page_title: Laurence Housman
section_title: Activism
hierarchical_section_title: Laurence Housman / Activism
caption_attribution_description: English: Dedication by Laurence Housman in Mabel Cappers WSPU prisoners scrapbook
context_page_description: Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator.
context_section_description: Housman held political views that were controversial. He was a committed socialist and pacifist and founded the Men's League for Women's suffrage with Henry Nevinson and Henry Brailsford in 1907. He was also a member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology and the Order of Chaeronea.
  In 1909 Laurence and sister Clemence founded the Suffrage Atelier, an arts and crafts society that worked closely with the Women's Social and Political Union and Women's Freedom League. They encouraged non-professional artists to submit work, and paid them a small percentage of the profits. In 1911 the Anti-Suffrage Alphabet, written by Housman and edited by Leonora Tyson, was published in London.
  In 1945 he opened Housmans Bookshop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, founded in his honour by the Peace Pledge Union, of which he was a sponsor. In 1959, shortly after his death, the shop moved to Caledonian Road, where it is still a source of literature on pacifism and other radical approaches to living.
caption: Dedication by Laurence Housman in Mabel Cappers' WSPU prisoners' scrapbook October 1910
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