Frank E. (Frank Edward) Smedley

Born at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on October 4, 1818, Francis Edward "Frank" Smedley was an English novelist from a Flintshire family. Because he was disabled from birth, he was educated privately rather than at school or university, and that experience later fed directly into his fiction.

He first published Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil anonymously in Sharpe's London Magazine in the late 1840s. He became best known for Frank Fairlegh, a spirited novel of student life and adventure that found a wide readership in Victorian Britain.

Smedley went on to write several more novels and remains associated with energetic, character-driven stories that mix comedy with autobiographical touches. He died on September 27, 1864.