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Francis Edward Smedley

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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FRANCIS SMEDLEY [FRANK] Edward (1818-1864), English novelist, was born at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on the 4th of October 1818, a member of a Flintshire family. A cripple from his birth, he was educated privately, and contributed his first book, Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil, anonymously to Sharpe's London Magazine in 1846-1848. His first essay proved so successful that it was expanded into Frank Fairleigh, and published in book-form in 1850. His next book Lewis Arundel: or the Railroad of Life was originally contributed to the same magazine, which he for some time edited, and was published in book-form in 1852. Of his other writings the bestknown is Harry Coverdale's Courtship (1855). These are all capital stories, racily told. Either Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") or George Cruikshank supplied illustrations for most of his books. Smedley died in London on the 1st of May 1864.