This timeline reocrds events and activities related to the little magazine community associated with Y90s magazines.
Timeline
Table of Events
| Date | Event | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 1888 | Emery Walker Gives Lecture on Book Design to Arts and Crafts Exhibition SocietyEmery Walker was a key figure in the fin-de-siècle fine printing revival and the late-Victorian little magazine movement. His lecture on typography and ornament at the first Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society inspired Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon to bring out a magazine of art and literature dedicated to design. The first volume of The Dial appeared within a year of Walker's lecture. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Aug 1889 | Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon publish The Dial, vol. 1, at The ValeInspired by Emery Walker's lecture on typography at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888, Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon produced The Dial from their shared home in The Vale, Chelsea, along with a small coterie of friends. The publication of the first volume in August 1889 brought them into contact with Oscar Wilde, who became a close friend, and Laurence Housman, whom Ricketts mentored. Published occasionally rather than at set intervals. The Dial came out in five issues between 1889 and 1897. Laurence Housman contributed a story to the fifth and final volume. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Jul 1890 | The Universal Review publishes Laurence Housman's "The Green Gaffer"Laurence Housman's first publication, "The Green Gaffer," appeared in Harry Quilter's Universal Review in July 1890. The five full-page illustrations Housman drew to accompany this imaginative tale show the fuzzy chalk style he favoured before meeting Charles Ricketts, who advised him to use pen-and-ink to achieve the effect of Pre-Raphaelite wood-engravings. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Autumn 1890 | Laurence Housman meets Charles Ricketts at The ValeShortly after publishing his first self-illustrated fairy tale, "The Green Gaffer," Laurence Housman called on Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon at The Vale, in search of a copy of the first issue of their little magazine of art and literature, The Dial. In his autobiography, Housman credits Ricketts as his inspiration for replacing his fuzzy chalk drawiing technique with hardline pen-and-ink, emulating the wood-engraved Pre-Raphaelite illustrations of the 1860s. As part of his re-training, Housman produced facsimile drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862). |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Autumn 1892 | Swan Sonnenschein publishes Jump to Glory Jane, designed by Laurence HousmanAfter Laurence Housman published his self-illustrated fairy tale, "The Green Gaffer," in the Universal Review, editor Harry Quilter invited him to design a stand-alone edition of George Meredith's satiric poem, Jump to Glory Jane, for Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. Housman's 44 designs show his recently adapted hard-line drawing technique. Housman's work caught the attention of publisher John Lane, who invited him to design a trial book for The Bodley Head, a fim specailizing in belles lettres. Housman went on to design numerous titles for The Bodley Head, including his own Green Arras and The Were-Wolf, by his sister Clemence Housman. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Autumn 1893 | The Bodley Head publishes Poems, by Francis Thompson, designed by Laurence HousmanLaurence Housman's first book design for The Bodley Head was not a complete success. The commission got off to a rocky start when publisher John Lane rejected Housman's frontispiece for the book. Although the novice designer sent Lane a long and detailed explication of the spiritual symbolism of his composition in relation to the themes of Thompson's collection, which included the Catholic poet's famous "Hound of Heaven," Lane seems to have thought the image conveyed more sensuous meanings than religious ones. In the end, Housman had to produce a new frontispiece for Thompson's book, which came out in late 1893. Almost three years later, Lane was to include Housman's rejected frontispiece in the tenth volume of The Yellow Book, under the title "The Barren Life." |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Dec 1893 | Macmillan publishes Goblin Market, designed by Laurence HousmanBouyed by his success with Jump-to-Glory Jane in 1892, Laurence Housman made a proposal to Macmillan, Christina Rossetti's publisher, to design the first illustrated stand-alone version of her Goblin Market. Housman had long admired both the poem and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations for the first edition, Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). As a novice illustrator mentored by Charles Ricketts, Housman had produced facsimiles of Rossetti's Goblin Market illustrations when he was working toward a more hardline, Pre-Raphaelite style of drawing. Housman's illustrations for Goblin Market, however, are entirely original. Although Christina Rossetti herself did not care for Housman's unique visualization of her poem, the critics and fellow artists did. His binding design was displayed at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society that year, Frederick Leighton added Housman's drawing for the title page to his collection, and Aubrey Beardsley invited him to contribute to the first volume of The Yellow Book. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| 15 Apr 1894 | The Yellow Book publishes Laurence Housman's "The Reflected Faun"John Lane and Elkin Mathews published volume one of the The Yellow Book in April 1894. Laurence Housman's pen-and-ink drawing, "The Reflected Faun," was one of the artworks selected by art editor Aubrey Beardsley for reproduction in the new magazine. In their reviews, critics called attention to Housman's Pre-Raphaelite-inspired style. The St James Gazette commented that "The Reflected Faun" showed Rossetti's influence. P. G. Hamerton's review in the second volume of The Yellow Book (July 1894) noted that Housman's drawing technique "was founded on early wood-engraving, which filled the whole space with decorative work, even to the four corners" (https://1890s.ca/YBV2_hamerton_yellow/). Rossetti's influence became even more evident when Green Arras, Housman's first collection of poetry, was published in 1896. Like Rossetti before him, Housman created "double works," developing the same subject matter in the separate media of word and picture. "The Reflected Faun" image published in The Yellow Book should be associated with "The Gazing Faun" poem which later appeared in Green Arras; together, they make a self-reflexive double-work of art. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Autumn 1895 | The Bodley Head publishes Sister Songs, designed by Laurence HousmanLaurence Housman designed Francis Thomas's Sister Songs for The Bodley Head in 1895. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Dec 1895 | The Pageant, vol. 1, publishes Laurence Housman's "Death and the Bather"In December 1895, Henry & Co. published The Pageant, the first volume of a Christmas annual of art and literature co-edited by Charles Shannon and Gleeson White (forward dated 1896). The volume included work by Laurence Housman in two media. His “Tale of a Nun" (translated by L. Simons) appeared in the literary contents. His black-and-white line drawing, "Death and the Bather," appeared in the volume's art contents. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Jul 1896 | The Yellow Book publishes Laurence Housman's "The Barren Life"In July 1896, volume 10 of The Yellow Book appeared, with Laurence Housman's black-and-white line drawing, "The Barren Life," among its art contents. The image, which was likely owned by publisher John Lane, was an old work recycled under a new title. The original drawing had been produced by Housman in 1893 as the frontispiece for Francis Thompson’s Poems. Lane had rejected this drawing by his novice book designer, and required Housman to produce a different frontispiece for Poems. In 1896, Housman was a well-established book designer and illustrator, whose self-illustrated collection of poems, Green Arras, was about to be published by The Bodley Head. Lane may have included "The Barren Life" in the summer issue of The Yellow Book by way of promoting the work of a Bodley Head designer who was about to become a Bodley Head author as well. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Nov 1896 | The Bodley Head publishes Laurence Housman's Green ArrasIn fall of 1896, John Lane at The Bodley Head published Laurence Housman's first collection of poetry, the self-illustrated Green Arras.. Designed by Housman himself, the book included "The Gazing Faun," the poetic part of a "double-work" whose visual version first appeared in The Yellow Book, volume 1, as "The Reflected Faun." The author-illustrator's sister Clemence Housman, a highly skilled wood engraver, engraved the elaborate designs for the book's facing frontispiece and title-page. The following year, The Bodley Head published another book created by the collaborating siblings: Clemence Housman's gothic tale, The Were-Wolf, whose illustrations the author engraved after Laurence's designs. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Dec 1896 | The Pageant, vol. 2, publishes Laurence Housman's "Blind Love"In December 1896, Henry & Co. published volume 2 of The Pageant (forward dated 1897), which included Laurence Housman's self-illustrated fairy tale, "Blind Love." His black-and-white line drawing appeared under the title "The Invisible Princess" in the list of art contents. However, because the illustration is not interleaved with, or adjacent to, the story, the relation between image and text is not immediately evident. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Dec 1897 | The Dial, vol. 5, publishes Laurence Housman's "Open the door, Posy!"Charles Rickett and Charles Shannon published the fifth and final volume of The Dial at the end of 1897. Housman's contribution, a fantasy entitled "Open the Door, Posy!," humourously portrays the means by which an impoverished mother and daughter outwit Death the Taxman, Death the Undertaker, and Death the Sexton, in a triumphant assertion of the right to live. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Summer 1902 | John Baillie's Art Gallery becomes the ticket office for Housman's first play, BethlehemIn the summer of 1902, Laurence Housman's first play, "Bethlehem,." was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain, because the Virgin Mary spoke on stage. To creatively circumvent the censor, Housman formed the "Bethlehem Society" and set up a ticket office for the enrolment of members at John Baillie's Art Gallery on Princes Terrace, Hereford Road, Bayswater. Baillie, who was to launch his annual, The Venture, the following year, took in subscriptions on Housman's behalf. Produced at the end of 1902, the play was directed and designed by E. Gordon Craig. A year later, Baillie published one of Craig's wood-engraved costume designs for Bethelehem in The Venture under the title "The Trumpter." |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Nov 1903 | John Baillie publishes The Venture, vol. 1, with Housman as co-editorIn 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. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| Winter 1903 | John Baillie's Art Gallery Exhibits Work by Laurence and Clemence HousmanWithin months of the December 1902 production of Bethlehem, John Baillie’s Gallery held an exhibition that included drawings by Laurence Housman and wood engravings by Louise Glazier and Clemence Housman. While Glazier's woodcuts were original prints designed and cut by herself, Clemence Housman's exhibits were facsimile engravings after Laurence Housman's designs. Baillie included Clemence Housman’s exquisite cutting of the title page for her brother’s self-illustrated book of fairy tales, The Blue Moon (1904), as a work of art in the first volume of The Venture, the only reproductive engraving in a list of original woodcuts by the period's best woodcut artists, including E. Gordon Craig, Louise Glazier, Eleanor Monsell, Lucien Pissarro,. and Charles Ricketts. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| 1907 | Men's League for Women's Suffrage formedAn avowed feminist,. Laurence Housman was an early member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. In support of the cause, he gave speeches, published pamphlets, designed banners, participated in protests, and co-hosted, with his sister Clemence, the Suffrage Atelier in their Kensington home. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| 21 Jun 1908 | Women's SundayIn advance of the processions planned for Women's Sunday, the WSPU (Women's Suffrage and Political Union) commissioned a series of banners to be held during the march. The Kensington branch of the WSPU was, according to Lisa Ticknor, the only banner to be worked by local members, as opposed to commercial manufacturers. Their banner, "From Prison to Citizenship," was designed by Laurence Housman and created principally by Clemence Housman, in collaboration with other members of the Kensington group, working together in the siblings' back garden studio. Ticknor speculates this group was the nucleus for the Suffrage Atelier, which the Housmans launched the following year (71). The banner became one of the most iconic of the suffrage movement and was carried in numerous processions. |
Lorraine Kooistra |
| 1909 | Clemence and Laurence Housman establish the Suffrage Atelier at their homeClemence and Laurence Housman set up the Suffrage Atelier in their back garden studio in Kensington. As an artist's cooperative, the Atelier made visual propaganda for the feminist cause and provided opportunities for women to gain artisinal skills and earn money for their work. The Atelier held lectures and classes on various subjects, and produced suffrage banners, posters, postcards, and the like. One of the most iconic of all suffrage banners, "From Prison to Citizenship," was designed by Laurence Housman and executed by Clemence Housman, who was a highly skilled textile artist in addition to being one of the period's leading facsimile engravers. The Atelier used images of the banner in their printed ephemera, such as postcards. |
Lorraine Kooistra |