active 19th century E. W. (Edward Walter) Smithson

Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed from reliable online sources during this search. He is credited in library and bookselling records as E. W. (Edward Walter) Smithson, and his known works include Shakespeare-Bacon: An Essay and Baconian Essays.

From those titles, he seems to have written in support of the Baconian side of the Shakespeare authorship debate, a subject that attracted many literary enthusiasts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because firmly sourced details about his life, dates, and background were not readily available, it is safest to remember him mainly through these surviving publications rather than through a well-documented personal history.