The Field of Clover by Laurence Housman, Fiction, Literary, Fantasy 12+

📙 Laurence Housman was born in 1965, the younger brother of British Poet Laureate A.E. Housman. He lived for most of his life with his sister Clemence, also an author, and a talented engraver -- it is Clemence to whom Housman's 1898 book of short stories, The Field of Clover, is dedicated. A prolific, gifted writer, Housman is best-remembered today for his plays, including an adaptation of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, and the enduringly-popular Prunella, or Love in a Dutch Garden. Housman also wrote an impassioned defense of Oscar Wilde, emphasizing Wilde's literary talent, and his right to a self-directed life. The Field of Clover is a collection of fairy tales that are reminiscent of Wilde's aesthetic. Housman's initial success came with his 1900 novel, the at-first anonymously-published An Englishwoman's Love Letters -- likely a great inspiration for later romantic, epistemological novels that remain popular today. He lived a long life, losing his sister Clemence in 1955, he died in 1959 at age 93 in Glastonbury.