Elihu Hubbard Smith (September 4, 1771 – September 19, 1798) was an American author, physician, and man of letters.

Early life and education

Smith was born in

Litchfield, Connecticut Litchfield is a town in and former county seat of Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,192 at the 2020 census. The boroughs of Bantam and Litchfield are located within the town. There are also three unincorpora ...

, to Dr. Reuben Smith and Abigail Hubbard Smith. He entered

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

at the age of 11 and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1786, making him Yale's youngest graduate at the time. He studied another year with Timothy Dwight at the academy at Greenfield Hill in Fairfield and went on to attend lectures at the Medical College of Philadelphia in 1790. He never received a medical degree but returned to Connecticut in late 1791 and attempted to establish a medical practice in Wethersfield, albeit with little success. He became a practicing physician in New York City in 1793, joined New York Hospital in 1796, and published articles on plagues and pestilential fevers in ancient Athens and Syracuse.

Literary career

Smith wrote the first American

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

, ''Edwin and Angelina; or, The Banditti'' (1796), a musical dramatization of Oliver Goldsmith's romantic ballad “The Hermit.” He was editor of the first book-length anthology of American poetry (''American Poems, Selected and Original'', 1793) and the first national American medical journal (''

The Medical Repository ''The Medical Repository'' was the first American medical journal, founded in 1797 and published quarterly, with some interruptions, through 1824. It was printed by T. & J. Swords, Printers to the Faculty of Physic of Columbia College, New Yor ...

'', launched in 1796–97). Smith was the youngest member of the Connecticut Wits, and alongside

Richard Alsop Richard Alsop (January 23, 1761 – August 20, 1815) was an American author from the Alsop family of Middletown, Connecticut. Richard Alsop was born January 23, 1761. His father (1727–1776) and son were also named Richard Alsop, which has led t ...

, Mason Cogswell, Theodore Dwight, and Lemuel Hopkins, he contributed to ''The Echo'', a series of satiric poems with a Federalist slant. From 1795 until his death, he kept a diary totaling some half-million words. In New York, Smith was a member and trustee of the anti-slavery Manumission Society, which ran a school for the children of slaves. His home became the headquarters of the Friendly Club, a New York literary society of young Federalist intellectuals. He was a friend and correspondent of many leading intellectuals of the era, including

Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...

, Alexander Hamilton,

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educa ...

Uriah Tracy Uriah Tracy (February 2, 1755July 19, 1807) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut. He served in the US House of Representatives (1793 to 1796) and the US Senate (1796 to 1807). From May to November 1800, Tracy served as Preside ...

Samuel Latham Mitchill Samuel Latham Mitchill (August 20, 1764September 7, 1831) was an American physician, naturalist, and politician who lived in Plandome, New York. Early life Samuel Mitchill was born in Hempstead in the Province of New York, the son of Robert M ...

Charles Brockden Brown Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 – February 22, 1810) was an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period. He is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore ...

, James Kent, and

William Dunlap William Dunlap (February 19, 1766 – September 28, 1839) was a pioneer of American theater. He was a producer, playwright, and actor, as well as a historian. He managed two of New York City's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Str ...

. Smith was a

deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

Death

Smith contracted

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

while attending patients during an outbreak of the disease in New York. He died five days later at the home of his friend Horace Miller on September 19, 1798. He is buried in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Wall Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Smith's portrait, painted by

James Sharples James Sharples (1751 or 1752, in Lancashire – 26 February 1811, in New York City) was an English portrait painter and pastelist, who moved to the United States in 1794. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1779. Life James was firs ...

ca. 1797, is in the permanent collection of the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Elihu Hubbard 1771 births 1798 deaths People from Litchfield, Connecticut Hartford Wits Poets from Connecticut 18th-century American poets 18th-century American male writers American male poets Physicians from Connecticut Deaths from yellow fever Yale College alumni 18th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century American physicians