author
C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso) Smith
1864–1924
Remembered as a lively champion of language and literature, this North Carolina-born scholar helped bring English studies to a wider audience. He wrote, edited, and taught with an ear for folklore, speech, and the pleasure of reading.
1 Audiobook
Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Exercise Book with Inflections, Syntax, Selections for Reading, and Glossary
by C. Alphonso (Charles Alphonso) Smith
About the author
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1864, Charles Alphonso Smith became an American professor of English, dean, philologist, and folklorist. He taught at several universities, including Louisiana State University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Virginia, and he was known for making literary study feel approachable rather than remote.
Alongside his teaching, he wrote and edited widely on literature and language. His interests ranged from poetry and short fiction to dialect, folklore, and everyday speech, and he also published a biography of O. Henry. That mix of scholarship and readability helped make him a familiar name to students and general readers in the early twentieth century.
Smith died in 1924, but his work still reflects a broad, curious view of English: not just as a school subject, but as something living in stories, conversation, and regional tradition.