Howard E. Smith
Howard E. Smith, Jr. was a prolific author and illustrator known for his contributions to science literature for both adults and young readers. Born in 1927 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, he pursued a B.A. from Colorado College and later embarked on a diverse career that included roles in editing and writing. Smith began publishing books in 1967, with his first being "From Under the Earth: America's Metals, Fuels, and Minerals." Over the years, he authored and illustrated more than twenty-five works covering a wide range of topics such as weather, nature, fossils, and space. His writing style was characterized by a creative approach that emphasized organic development, often eschewing traditional intensive research methods. Collaborating with his wife, Louanne Norris, he co-authored several award-winning books, including "Newsmakers: The Press and the Presidents." Smith's later works focused on themes related to the desert landscapes of New Mexico and Santa Fe. He passed away in 2002, leaving behind a legacy of educational literature and artistic contributions.
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Subject Terms
Howard E. Smith
Author
- Born: November 18, 1927
- Birthplace: Gloucester, Massachusetts
- Died: 2002
Biography
Over the course of his long career, versatile author Howard E. Smith, Jr., wrote and illustrated books on a wide range of science topics for adults and young people. Since his 1967 book for young adults, From Under the Earth: America’s Metals, Fuels, and Minerals, which he both wrote and illustrated, Smith explored the areas of weather, politics, nature, fossils, peace studies, space, and weapons. Beginning in the mid- 1980’s, he increasingly turned to creating illustrations to accompany his texts, most notably with the 1987 Small Worlds: The Communities of Living Things.
Smith was born in 1927 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to his artist father Howard Everett Smith and his mother Martha (Rondelle) Smith. He attended Colorado College, where he received a B.A. in 1953. Also in 1953, he married Louanne Norris, with whom he had two children, Carolyn Lavinia and Alexander Noel Howard. After spending several years as a surveyor, Smith turned to writing and editing. He served in a variety of editorial positions from 1964 to 1975: He worked for the Science Materials Center, the television program Mr. Wizard, the Foster Wheeler Corporation, and McGraw-Hill, in both the junior book division and the general book division.
Smith began writing concurrently with his editorial career. Beginning with his first book in 1967, he published more than twenty-five books, two of which, Newsmakers: The Press and the Presidents and An Oak Tree Dies and a Journey Begins, were written with his wife, Louanne. These two books and a third, Living Fossils, received awards from various educational associations. Killer Weather: Stories of Great Disasters was included on the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list.
Smith described the writing of his nonfiction work as a creative process that draws upon both memory and intuition. In a field of writing where many authors emphasize the role of intensive research and preparation, Smith described his process as a kind of automatic writing, where the text evolves organically from the act of writing itself. In later years, Smith continued to search out new topics, working on books about the desert landscapes of New Mexico and Santa Fe and continuing to evolve as an artist and illustrator. He died in 2002.