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Arthur D. Howden Smith (; 1887–1945) was an American historian and novelist.Robert Sampson, ''Yesterday's Faces: Violent Lives'', Bowling Green State University, 1993, , pp. 177–78.
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.
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
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 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Arthur D. Howden 1887 births 1945 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American fantasy writers American historical novelists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American newspaper reporters and correspondents Pulp fiction writers Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages
Arthur D. Howden Smith (; 1887–1945) was an American historian and novelist.Robert Sampson, ''Yesterday's Faces: Violent Lives'', Bowling Green State University, 1993, , pp. 177–78.
Life
Arthur Douglas Howden Smith was born in New York. In 1907, he joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) in Sofia. His experiences he recounted in 1908 in the book ''Fighting the Turk in the Balkans'', describing the revolutionary struggle in Macedonia. On returning to the United States, Smith became a reporter for the newspaper the '' New York Evening Post''. Michael Cox and Jack Adrian, ''The Oxford Book of Historical Stories''. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1994. (p.428).Work
Smith began writing by contributing fiction to pulp magazines; his main market was '' Adventure''. Smith also wrote fiction for '' Blue Book''. For ''Adventure'', Smith wrotesea stories
Nautical fiction, frequently also naval fiction, sea fiction, naval adventure fiction or maritime fiction, is a genre of literature with a setting on or near the sea, that focuses on the human relationship to the sea and sea voyages and highligh ...
about the adventures of Captain McConaughy. There were also historical swashbucklers about a Viking, Swain, living in Medieval Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
and engaged in a terrible feud with the witch Frakork and her blood-thirsty grandson Olvir Rosta – which Smith bases on historical information provided by the Orkneyinga saga.
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.
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 frontier
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...
of Colonial North America at the Iroqois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
country where a fierce struggle is waged with French agents out of Canada for control of the fur trade.
Smith was a great admirer of Robert Louis Stevenson. 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. Smith also wrote a sequel to Stevenson's ''Kidnapped'', ''Alan Breck Again''.
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 William Walker may refer to:
Arts
* William Walker (engraver) (1791–1867), mezzotint engraver of portrait of Robert Burns
* William Sidney Walker (1795–1846), English Shakespearean critic
* William Walker (composer) (1809–1875), American Ba ...
.
Smith wrote several books on American history, including a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, ''Commodore Vanderbilt: An Epic of American Achievement'' (1927).Edward J. Renehan, Jr., ''Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'', Basic Books, , p. 326.
References
External links
* *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 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Arthur D. Howden 1887 births 1945 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American fantasy writers American historical novelists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American newspaper reporters and correspondents Pulp fiction writers Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages