In November 1903, John Baillie, an artist from New Zealand who had an Art Gallery in Bayswater, ventured into publishing with The Venture: An Annual of Art and Literature. Laurence Housman co-edited the literary contents of the first volume with Somerset Maugham, while Baillie took responsibility for the art contents, which consisted entirely of woodcuts. In addition to his editorial work, Housman designed the annual's strking cover and contributed to its lterary and artistic contents. His "Proverbial Romances" consist of nine short scenes in which the relationships and challenges of fairy-tale characters provide symbolic insight into the human condition. The stories are punctuated by the title-page design for Housman's forthcoming collection of self-illustrated fairy tales, The Blue Moon.