James Smith

Born in London in 1775, James Smith was an English writer, humorist, and poet who also worked as a solicitor. He succeeded his father as solicitor to the Board of Ordnance, but he became best remembered for his literary wit and for the sparkling social reputation that surrounded it.

Smith is most closely associated with Rejected Addresses (1812), the celebrated collection of parodies he wrote with his younger brother Horace Smith. The book playfully imitated leading poets of the period and became a major success, securing his place in the tradition of English comic writing.

He continued to write verse and prose marked by lightness, satire, and good humor, and after his death in 1839 his writings were gathered in Memoirs, Letters, and Comic Miscellanies. Today he is remembered less for a single grand work than for a style that was sharp, entertaining, and deeply enjoyable to read.