Herbert Greenhough Smith

Herbert Greenhough Smith (1855 – 14 January 1935) was the first editor of The Strand Magazine which published many of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. His active support and encouragement to Conan Doyle, and the magazine's vigorous promotion of the Sherlock Holmes character, had much to do with the character's success.

Herbert Greenhough Smith
Born1855
Stroud, England
Died14 January 1935(1935-01-14) (aged 80)
London, England
NationalityEnglish
OccupationEditor, Strand Magazine 1891–1930

Biography

Born in Stroud in 1855, the eldest of the eight children of Alfred Smith (1821–1896) and his wife Eleanor née Greenhough (1821–1896), Herbert was given his mother's maiden name as a middle name and subsequently used it as a double surname. He attended St. John's College, Cambridge where he achieved a B.A., before working briefly as a private tutor. He "gave this up for journalism".

Herbert first married Beatrice Elizabeth B. Harrison in 1885, with whom he had one son, Cyril Herbert Greenhough Smith (1889–1924). Following Beatrice's death in 1897 at the age of 27, he married Dorothy Vernon Muddock (born 1882), the daughter of James Edward Preston Muddock in 1900.

Smith began editing The Strand in 1891, retiring in 1930. He died on 14 January 1935.

Publications

He wrote the following articles in The Strand Magazine [1] -

  • Quixarvyn's Rival December 1891
  • The Case of Roger Carboyne September 1892
  • The Powder Mine December 1893
  • Some Letters of Conan Doyle October 1930

He wrote the following books -

  • The Chevalier Bayard
  • A Court Duel
  • Castle Sombras
  • Odd Moments : Essays in Little
  • Stranger than Fiction - Thrills of History
  • The Romance of History
  • What I Think - A Symposium on Books and Other Things by Famous Writers of Today (Editor)

Screen portrayals

In the Sherlock Holmes spoof film Without a Clue the character played by Peter Cook called Norman Greenhough (who was publisher for the Holmes stories) was clearly based on Greenhough Smith.

He has also been portrayed on television, by Ralph Riach in Murder Rooms, and by Allan Corduner in The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle.

References
  1. Beare, Geraldine, Index to The Strand Magazine, 1891-1950 (Greenwood Press, 1982)


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