author
R. Elton Smile
An unusual 19th-century American physician who also ventured into early speculative fiction, he is remembered today for a pair of curious scientific romances. His work blends exploration, satire, and the era’s fascination with lost worlds and new discoveries.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Writing under the name R. Elton Smile, Elton Romeo Smilie was an American physician and author born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on August 17, 1819. Reference sources identify him as a doctor known for work connected with the practice of anesthetics, and they list 1889 as his year of death.
He has a small but intriguing place in early science fiction history. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes him for two tales, while the Internet Speculative Fiction Database records his legal name, birthplace, and dates. He is best known for The Manatitlans, an adventure that mixes scientific exploration, satire, and a taste for the strange.
Because so little biographical material about him is readily available online, much of his life remains obscure. That mystery is part of the appeal: he stands as one of those lesser-known 19th-century writers whose surviving work offers a glimpse into the imaginative borderland between medicine, travel narrative, and early speculative fiction.