[Gutenberg 23701] • The Man In The High-Water Boots

Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915) was an American author, artist and engineer. He was a descendant of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Smith became a contractor in New York City and did much work for the federal government including the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. His vacations were spent sketching in the White Mountains, in Cuba and in Mexico. He also visited and sketched in Venice, Constantinople and the Netherlands. He illustrated and published numerous travelogues, such as Well-Worn Roads (1887), A White Umbrella in Mexico (1889) and The Venice of To-Day (1897). His novels and short stories are especially felicitous in their portrayal of the Old South. Among them are: Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1891), A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others (1895), Tom Grogan (1896), The Fortunes of Oliver Horn (1902), The Under Dog (1903) and The Tides of Barnegat (1906).