Edward Smith

Born in 1839 and active as an English biographer, he is remembered for nonfiction that mixed biography, history, and social observation. He was a Fellow of the Statistical Society and received the society's Howard Medal in 1875 for an essay on the condition of poor people's housing, later published as The Peasant's Home, 1760–1875.

His books show a clear interest in political and public life. Confirmed works include William Cobbett: A Biography (1878), The Story of the English Jacobins (1881), Foreign Visitors in England (1889), England and America after Independence (1900), and The Life of Sir Joseph Banks (1911). He also contributed articles to the Dictionary of National Biography.

He died in 1919. Although the surviving reference material on him is fairly brief, his bibliography suggests a writer drawn to energetic personalities and the social currents around them, making him a useful guide to nineteenth-century historical biography.