Arthur D. Howden Smith
Arthur Douglas Howden Smith (1887–1945) was an American historian and novelist.[1]
Life
Smith was born in New York. In 1907, he joined the
Work
Smith began writing by contributing fiction to pulp magazines; his main market was Adventure.[3] Smith also wrote fiction for Blue Book.[4]
For Adventure, Smith wrote
Smith's most famous series were the "Grey Maiden" stories. This revolved around a cursed sword created during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III and its subsequent appearances through world history.[1][7]
Smith also wrote "The Doom Trail" (1921) and its sequel "Beyond the Sunset", the adventures of Harry Ormerod, an 18th-century English exile, in the
Smith was a great admirer of Robert Louis Stevenson.[2] In Porto Bello Gold (1924), a prequel to Treasure Island – written with the permission of Robert Louis Stevenson's executor, Lloyd Osbourne – Harry Ormerod's son Robert goes to sea in the company of such famous pirates as Captain Flint, Long John Silver and Billy Bones and takes part in capturing the treasure which would be recovered in Stevenson's book.[8] Smith also wrote a sequel to Stevenson's Kidnapped, Alan Breck Again.[2]
The Ormerod Family saga was continued further in The Manifest Destiny where Robert Ormerod's great-grandson takes part in the expeditions of the 19th century adventurer William Walker.
Smith wrote several books on American history, including a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Commodore Vanderbilt: An Epic of American Achievement (1927).[9]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-685-68823-2, pp. 177–78.
- ^ ISBN 9780192142191(p.428).
- ISBN 1-55742-143-9, p. 14.
- ^ Mike Ashley, "Blue Book—The Slick in Pulp Clothing", Pulp Vault, No. 14, Barrington Hills, IL: Tattered Pages Press, 2011, pp. 210–53.
- ^ Jones, p. 20.
- ^ Jones, pp. 35-36.
- ISBN 0-312-19869-8, p. 879.
- ISBN 0-7864-4179-8, p. 61.
- ISBN 0-465-00256-0, p. 326.
External links
- Works by Arthur D. Howden Smith at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Arthur D. Howden Smith at Internet Archive
- Works by Arthur Douglas Howden Smith at Faded Page (Canada)
- Robert Kenneth Jones, Pulp Classics: The Lure of Adventure (2007) at Google Books – pp. 35–36, on Smith, "perhaps the most series-minded" Adventure writer
- Arthur D. Howden Smith at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Arthur D. Howden Smith at Library of Congress, with 27 library catalog records