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The following page is a WiP. It's been taking longer than expected to come together, but I think I'm very close to getting this finished.

Edgar Valentine Smith (1875 – 1953) was a novelist, short story writer, playwright, and journalist. He graduated from the Marion Military Institute and worked for the Birmingham News.

Life
Edgar Valentine Smith was named after Saint Valentine because his birthday coincided with Valentine's Day. He grew up in the American south, living in lumber regions. In fact, he came from a lumber family, once referring to himself as a former lumberjack.

Reportedly, Smith's humble youth shaped his attitude later in life, as he was described as displaying genuine modesty, referring to himself as "Plain Mr. Smith." Furthermore, he was acutely aware of his own heavy Southern drawl.

Smith's first short story was published when he was only 14. He tried to have another story published when he was 24, but this piece was rejected, reportedly causing him to quit writing for around twenty years. In regards to his own writing, Smith claimed he was easily discouraged, saying:"I always get discouraged half-way through writing a story. I stop and sit there, just looking at the typewriter for about three hours without writing a word, and saying 'it's no use—you're not a: writer and never will be a writer.' But I manage to get through somehow. It always happens like that—it happened in 'Prelude.'"

Smith died in his home of a heart attack. (Multiple sources reported his age to be 79, but calculating his age reveals that he would have been 78.)

Short stories

 * "Prelude," Harper's Magazine (May 1923)
 * "Substance of Things Hoped For," Harper's Magazine (August 1923)
 * "Silhouette," Harper's Magazine (May 1924)
 * "Lijah," Harper's Magazine (August 1924)
 * "Cameo," Harper's Magazine (December 1924)
 * "Pardoned," Harper's Magazine (July 1925)
 * "Brother to the Ox," The Elks Magazine (December 1928)
 * "Freed," Scribner's Magazine (June 1929)
 * "Cock-a-Doodle-Done!" The Elks Magazine (July 1930)

The short story "Prelude" (1923) won Smith an O. Henry Award, first prize. The publisher of the story, Harper's Magazine, responded by asserting, "No 'first story' from a writer new to the Magazine has received such immediate and widespread recognition." The piece was described by The Saturday Review as "an excellent story of Alabama life."

Stylistically, Smith's writing was often reflective of the American south. The Bookman discussed Smith's short story "Cameo" (1924), praising it and saying, "it is Mr. Smith's own contribution to one of the distinctive veins of American romance." However, Smith's short story "Lijah" (written in Mississippi, 1924) would be criticized in a 1926 article for The Bookman; the article suggests "Lijah" is mostly derivative, saying, "[it is] like the stories of Thomas Nelson Page and the stories of Hopkinson Smith in the same way that the last line in a copybook is like the first line in a copybook." The Saturday Review also noticed this apparent similarity, but they ultimately described "Lijah" positively, saying, "[it] is a tale worthy of Thomas Nelson Page."

Ultimately, "Lijah" would win Smith another O. Henry Award, but not first prize. Likewise, Smith's story "Cock-a-Doodle-Done!" (1930) would win another minor O. Henry Award.

Novels

 * Unknown (Unknown)

Plays

 * Unknown (Unknown)

Awards

 * O. Henry Award, First Prize, 1923, for "Prelude."
 * O. Henry Award, unknown prize, 1924, for "Lijah."
 * O. Henry Award, unknown prize, 1930, for "Cock-a-Doodle-Done!"