Laurence Dwight Smith


Laurence Dwight Smith was an American author specializing in crime fiction and cryptography.

Early life and education

Smith was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 24, 1895. After completing preparatory school at the Phillips Academy in 1914, he attended Yale College and, after graduating, took a job with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut as a machinist. He married Kathryn Marsh of New York City in August 1917, and in January 1918 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Having been promoted to sergent in the Corps of Intelligence Police during World War I, he was discharged after the war in September 1919 at the age of 24.

Works

Fiction

Death is thy neighbour, 1938Girl Hunt Red Arrow Books, 1939The G-Men Smash the Professor's Gang, Illustrated by Robb Beebe, 1936, Grosset & DunlapThe G Men in Jeopardy. Illustrated by Milton Marx. 1938. Grosset & Dunlap.The G-Men trap the Spy Ring Illustrated by Paul Laune. 1939. Grosset & DunlapMystery of the Yellow Tie, 1939Hiram and other Cats, Grosset & Dunlap, 1941Adirondack Adventure, 1945Reunion, Samuel Curl Inc, 1946

Non-fiction

Cryptography - the science of secret writing, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1943 ; George Allen and Unwin, London, 1944 Hooked - Narcotics: America's Peril, with Rafael de Soto, 1953Cryptography W.W Norton and Co, 1971Counterfeiting - crime against the people, 1944