Effie Walleer Smith (1879-1960) was born to former slaves on Chloe Creek in Pike County, Kentucky. She attended Kentucky's HBCU in Frankfort, and served as a teacher while publishing her poems in magazines, including Harpers Weekly, and in three books. In 1918, before she turned forty, she moved to Wisconsin, and there is no record of her continuing her writing career after that. David Deskins of Pike County deserves much credit for reprinting some of her books and encouraging recognition of her contributions.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. 53 pages. Hardback issued without a dust jacket.