Louis Esson

Thomas Louis Buvelot Esson (10 August 1878 – 27 November 1943) was a Scottish-born Australian poet, journalist, critic and playwright. He was a co-founder of the Pioneer Players. His second wife, Hilda Esson (nee Bull), had a career in theatre besides working as a doctor in the field of public health.

Early life and education Esson was born on 10 August 1878 at Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland, but moved to Melbourne, Australia, when he was three, along with his widowed mother. She had siblings in Melbourne, including artist John Ford Paterson, and Esson was raised mostly by his aunts. His mother remarried twice: first to George Brown, with whom she had another son Frank Brown, and secondly to politician James Gibb.

He attended the University of Melbourne from 1896, but did not finish his arts degree. and visited London, Ireland, and Paris in 1904–1905. He met Irish playwrights J. M. Synge (in Paris) and W. B. Yeats (in Dublin),

His first collection of poetry was published in 1910, with three collections of plays following by 1912, including Dead Timber. Hilda acted in several of their productions.