Francis Edward Smedley, (4 October 1818 - 1 May 1864) was an English novelist born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, to Francis Smedley and Frances Sarah Ellison. 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. He lived with his cousin, the poet Menella Bute Smedley, who acted as his housekeeper and secretary. Smedley died in London in 1864.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.