author
E. A. (Edward Augustine) Wyke-Smith
1871–1935
An adventurous English writer and mining engineer, he is best remembered for The Marvellous Land of Snergs, a witty fantasy that later helped spark ideas behind Tolkien’s hobbits.
1 Audiobook
The marvellous land of Snergs
by E. A. (Edward Augustine) Wyke-Smith
About the author
Born in 1871, Edward Augustine Wyke-Smith led a life that reached far beyond the study. Sources describe him as an English adventurer, mining engineer, and writer, and note that he spent years working in mining and engineering, including time in the United States before 1899.
He wrote under the name E. A. Wyke-Smith and is now chiefly remembered for The Marvellous Land of Snergs, published in 1927. The book’s small, cheerful snergs became its lasting claim to fame, because later readers and critics linked them to J. R. R. Tolkien’s idea of hobbits.
Wyke-Smith died in 1935. Even with a relatively small literary reputation, his work has kept a quiet but special place in fantasy history thanks to its charm, humor, and surprising influence.