Francis Edward Smedley

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Francis Edward Smedley, (4 October 1818 - 1 May 1864) was an English novelist born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, a member of a Flintshire family. His name appears in print usually as Frank E. Smedley. 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 Fairlegh, and published in book-form in 1850. 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 in 1864.

The saying "All's fair in love and war" comes from his novel Frank Peterson.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.