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E. Boyd Smith
(1860 - 1943)
Born in St. John, New Brunswick, and raised in Boston, Elmer Boyd Smith spent several years studying art in France before finally settling in Wilton, Connecticut. While living abroad, Smith absorbed a wide swath of influences ranging from the muted, mystery-laden palette and epic vision of French muralist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes to the dashing graphic shorthand of poster artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
He based My Village (1896), the first of the more than seventy books he illustrated for adults and children, on his summer sojourns in the village of Valombre, near Paris. Like so many artists of his generation, Smith, being acutely aware of living in a time of breathtaking technological and social change, dedicated himself in part to documenting aspects of the everyday world—sail power, the family farm—that he knew to be on the verge of disappearing forever.
Smith’s first two children’s picture books, The Story of Noah’s Ark (1905) and The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (1906) immediately established him, alongside Howard Pyle and Jessie Willcox Smith, as one of America’s leading illustrators for the young. He was well suited to the calling, thanks not only to his formidable skill as a draughtsman but also because of his genial storytelling manner and knack for conveying useful knowledge in a fresh, unforced, and delightful way.
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Bibliography
The Noel Streatfeild Summer Holiday Book: An Anthology (1973)
Contains a story by E. Boyd Smith along with many others.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Various
Illustrator(s):
Sara Silcock
The Outlet (1905)
An account of the author’s experiences as a cowboy after the Civil War as Texas cattle were driven to the north to be finished for market on the plains that had been cleared of buffalo. Read for free online at HathiTrust.
Author(s):
Andy Adams
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Plantation Pageants (1899)
Fourteen tales of plantation life after the Civil War. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Joel Chandler Harris
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Poems and Rhymes (1907)
A collection of poems with illustrations by many artists. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Various
Illustrator(s):
L. Leslie Brooke
Howard Pyle
E. Boyd Smith
Et al
The Railroad Book (1913)
Two children discover the railroad in their back yard. Read for free online at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Robinson Crusoe (1909)
The first of the desert island castaway adventures. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Daniel Defoe
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Santa Claus and All About Him (1908)
Everything you wanted to know about the jolly old elf.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
The Seashore Book (1912)
Betty and Bob learn about ships and the sea from old Captain Hawes during their summer by the seashore. Read for free online at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Seven O’Clock Stories (1920)
Short stories of everyday doings of three happy children who live on a farm, Jehosophat, Marmaduke and Hepzebiah. Read for free online at Lit2Go.
Author(s):
Robert Gordon Anderson
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Sinopah, the Indian Boy (1913)
The story of Sinopah, a Blackfoot Indian boy who grew up to become the great chief Pitamakan. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
James Willard Schultz
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Sister Anne (1902)
A young man of the aristocracy has a child by a woman who is dumb. His wife discovers his infidelity and takes the woman and her child into their home.
Author(s):
Charles Paul de Kock
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Et al
So Long Ago (1944)
Mainly about dinosaurs.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
The Story of Noah’s Ark (1905)
How God told Noah to build an ark before He sent the flood. Read for free online at Project Gutenberg.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Story of Our Country (1920)
From the Vikings to World War I, a brief history of the discovery, founding and growth of the United States of America. Read for free online at HathiTrust.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (1906)
The well known story of the Indian princess and the English hero who three times defeated the Turks in single combat. Read for free online at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Author(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
The Supply at Saint Agatha’s (1896)
A ‘supply’ is a Protestant clergyman who fills in for an absent pastor. In this short story, a heavenly figure fills in for a dying man. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Sarah Whitman
Marcia Oakes Woodbury
Tales of the Home Folks in Peace and War (1898)
A dozen stories about the poor folks and the rich folks of the South before and after the Civil War. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Joel Chandler Harris
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Tang of Life (1918)
An old-fashioned cowboy shoot-em-up. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Henry Herbert Knibbs
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
A Texas Matchmaker (1904)
A collection of stories about cow punching in the old West. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Andy Adams
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai (1908)
Thirty-four Indian fables. Read for free online at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Author(s):
Maude Barrows Dutton
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith