author
Harry James Smith
1880–1918
Best known for the hit play A Tailor-Made Man, this American writer moved from science and teaching into magazine work and the stage. His career was cut short in 1918, but his plays and novels still mark him as a lively figure of early 20th-century popular writing.
1 Audiobook
Cape Breton Tales
by Harry James Smith
About the author
Born in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1880, Harry James Smith was an American playwright and novelist. He studied at Williams College and Harvard, taught biology at Oberlin, and later worked as an associate editor at The Atlantic Monthly before turning fully to writing.
Smith wrote both fiction and drama, with works including The Little Teacher, Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh, and Blackbirds. His best-known success was A Tailor-Made Man, first produced in 1917 and later adapted for film.
He died in New Westminster, British Columbia, in March 1918. A collection of his correspondence, Letters of Harry James Smith, was published after his death, offering a glimpse of a literary career that ended far too early.