SMITH, Justin Harvey 1857-1930

PERSONAL: Born January 13, 1857, in Boscawen, NH; died March 21, 1930; son of Ambrose (a minister) and Cynthia Maria (Egerton) Smith. Education: Dartmouth College, A.B., 1877, A.M., 1881, Litt.D., 1920; attended Union Theological Seminary, 1879-81.

CAREER: Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, private secretary, 1879-81; worked in publishing, 1881-90; Ginn & Co., head of editorial department, 1890-98; Dartmouth College, professor of modern history, 1899-1908; writer. Member of visiting committee on Romance philology at Harvard University, 1896-1906.

MEMBER: American Historical Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Pulitzer Prize for best book on American history, 1920 and First Loubat Prize for Best Book in English, 1923, both for The War with Mexico.

WRITINGS:

Troubadours at Home: Their Lives and Personalities, Their Songs and Their World, two volumes, 1899.

Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec: A Critical Study: Together with a Reprint of Arnold's Journal, 1903.

A Tale of Two World and Five Centuries, 1903.

(Editor) The Historie Booke, 1903.

Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony: Canada and the American Revolution, two volumes, Putnam (New York, NY), 1907.

The Annexation of Texas, P. Smith (Glouchester, MA), 1911, reprinted, AMS Press (New York, NY), 1971.

(Editor) Letters of Santa Anna, 1919.

The War with Mexico, two volumes, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1919, reprinted, P. Smith (Glouchester, MA), 1963.

Also contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Justin Harvey Smith was an historian whose passions and dedication for his topics resulted in intensive research efforts that helped him produce his award-winning history books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The War with Mexico. Smith taught modern history at Dartmouth College before resigning to devote himself full time to traveling and writing. His travels to Provence, Italy, and his study of Provencal poets of the tenth and early eleventh century resulted in his first publication, Troubadours at Home: Their Lives and Personalities, Their Songs and Their World. Smith's goal for this work was to introduce the world to the writings of the troubadours and categorize their literature in the sequence in which it first appeared.

Smith also authored two books on the American Revolution: Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec: A Critical Study, an in-depth study of Benedict Arnold, and Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony: Canada and the American Revolution, in which he examines the tumultuous times of the thirteen colonies in America and their declaration of independence from England's dominance. In the latter work, Smith focuses on the colonies efforts to force Lower Canada into declaring independence. Considered a definitive work on the subject, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony was praised by an Outlook reviewer who wrote that the book "is so fresh, so original, and so informing that it deserves the heartiest of welcomes."

For his next project, Smith examines another tumultuous time in American history, this time focusing on the annexation of Texas. As a reviewer said in Choice, "Few works on this climatic period of Texas history are more valuable than The Annexation of Texas." Another reviewer, writing in the Annual of the American Academy, praised Smith's in-depth research: "The great value of Dr. Smith's book is that it represents original research, wide and deep. What others have done by parts he has done as a whole."

In 1919 Smith released his critically praised The War with Mexico, a two-volume set about the war between the United States and Mexico. Only after an intensive effort was Smith able to provide the vivid details surrounding the war. The first volume deals with the turmoil in Mexico, giving details about the social, political, and economic situation there prior to its declaration of independence from Spain, while the second volume focuses on the actual war between Mexico and the United States. A Boston Transcript critic said, "This book must be regarded as the definitive work on this important episode in the history of the expansion of our country." Smith also received praise from a Springfield Republican reviewer, who wrote, "The public is deeply indebted to Professor Smith, who after years of patient delving in the vaults of historical societies, in local archives in private collections, etc., has produced a scholarly and well thought-out history." Not only did The War withMexico win the Pulitzer Prize for best book in American history in 1920, but it proved to be a timeless reference tool that was still consulted almost a century later.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American History Review, April, 1912, review of The Annexation of Texas; July, 1920, review of The War with Mexico.

Annual of the American Academy, November, 1912, review of The Annexation of Texas.

Boston Transcript, February 4, 1920, review of The War with Mexico, p. 6.

Choice, July/August, 1972, review of The Annexation of Texas, p. 713.

Dial, May, 1920, review of The War with Mexico.

English Historical Review, July, 1912, review of The Annexation of Texas.

New York Times, September 7, 1907, review of Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony: Canada and the American Revolution.

Outlook, October 12, 1912, review of Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony; June 2, 1920, review of The War with Mexico.

Political Science Quarterly, June, 1912, review of The Annexation of Texas.

Spectator, September 7, 1907, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony.

Springfield Republican, March 8, 1920, review of The War with Mexico, p. 5.*