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About the author
Francis Edward Smedley was an English novelist. His name is frequently printed as Frank E. Smedley. He was born with malformed feet, which limited his mobility and prevented him from attending traditional school. Instead, he received private education from his uncle. His relative, the poet Menella Bute Smedley, later served as his housekeeper and secretary. Smedley died in London in 1864 and was buried at Marlow Parish Churchyard in Buckinghamshire. Smedley anonymously donated his first book, Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil, to Sharpe's London Magazine between 1846 and 1848. Smedley is credited with editing that publication. In 1849, he organized for the publication of "Seven Tales by Seven Authors". The authors were Edwina Burbury and George Payne Rainsford James. The book's revenues were directed to Burbury, who was experiencing "financial difficulties," and she was granted copyright. The book was reissued in 1860, and Smedley purchased the rights from Burbury in order to do so, as well as document its history in the preface to that version. Smedley's first essay was so well received that it was enlarged into Frank Fairlegh and published as a book in 1850. His next book, Lewis Arundel or The Railroad of Life, began as a contribution to the same magazine, which he later edited, and was released as a book in 1852. Harry Coverdale's Courtship (1855) is his most well-known work.
