FRANCIS [

See also:

• FRANK, JAKOB (1726-1791)

FRANK]

See also:

• EDWARD

EDWARD

See also:

• FRANCIS [FRANK] EDWARD SMEDLEY (1818-1864)
• SMEDLEY, WILLIAM THOMAS (1858– )

SMEDLEY (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 185o . 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 best-known 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 .