Stevie Smith has been increasingly recognised as one of the most important female British poets of the twentieth-century, and the most original voice to emerge from the 1930s. Her three novels, written at the beginning of her career, have been praised for their playful narrative voices and literary allusions, whilst her nine volumes of poetry accompanied by her intransigent illustrations have made her one of the most popular and individual poets of the last hundred years.

Florence Margaret Smith was born on 20 September 1902 in Hull, England. She would only acquire the name Stevie nearly twenty years later, when she was compared to the popular jockey Steve Donaghue. Her elder sister, Ethel Mary Frances, was born two years earlie

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First published 18 September 2006

Citation: May, William. "Stevie Smith". The Literary Encyclopedia. 18 September 2006.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4124, accessed 21 November 2009.]