author
Edward Smith
1839–1919
A Victorian-era English biographer and social observer, he wrote about both notable lives and everyday living conditions. His books range from studies of William Cobbett and Sir Francis Drake to a prize-winning look at housing for the poor.
2 Audiobooks
William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 1
by Edward Smith
William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 2
by Edward Smith
About the author
Edward Smith was an English biographer born in 1839 and died in 1919. Reliable sources available here identify him as a biographer, and also note that he was a Fellow of the Statistical Society.
One of the best-documented parts of his career is his 1875 Howard Medal award for an essay on the housing of poor people, later published as The Peasant's Home. That mix of social concern and historical writing also shows up in other works linked to him, including William Cobbett: A Biography and Foreign Visitors in England, and What They Have Thought of Us.
The surviving record in the sources used here is fairly brief, but it suggests a writer with broad interests: biography, antiquarian subjects, and social conditions in Britain. No suitable confirmed portrait image was available from the pages checked.