E. Louise (Emma Louise) Smythe

Emma Louise Smythe, who published as E. Louise Smythe, is known for children's reading books from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Confirmed sources identify her as born in 1858, and her best-known surviving work is A Primary Reader: Old-time Stories, Fairy Tales and Myths Retold by Children, first published in 1896.

In the preface to that book, Smythe explains that it grew out of reading lessons she prepared for first-grade pupils in the Santa Rosa public schools. Her aim was practical as well as imaginative: to give beginners easy reading material, introduce them to heroes and stories from classic tradition, and encourage a lasting interest in literature.

She is also credited with Reynard the Fox, another book adapted for young readers. Little else about her life was clearly confirmed in the sources available, but the work that remains shows a writer closely connected to early education and to retelling well-known stories in a way children could confidently read and enjoy.