The Underdog

by Francis Hopkinson Smith

Francis Hopkinson Smith (October 23, 1838 - April 7, 1915) was a United States author, artist and engineer. He built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty, wrote many famous stories and received awards for his paintings.Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland, a descendant of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from the Boys' Latin School of Maryland. Smith became a contractor in New York City and did much work for the federal government, including the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Race Rock Lighthouse (southwest of Fishers Island, New York) and many life-saving stations. 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.

Genres: Fiction

339 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Francis Hopkinson Smith (October 23, 1838 – April 7, 1915) was a United States author, artist and engineer. He built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty, wrote many famous stories and received awards for his paintings.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not crazy about short stories but these were wonderful, great characters, very moving with insight to the terrible times in the lives of mountain people after the civil war. MUFFLES "He might have been a weed, but he was never a flower, A weed that grew up between the cobbles,crouching under the hoofs of horses and the tramp of men , and who was pulled up and thrown aside and still lived on and flourished in various ways , and all that tenacity of purpose and buoyancy of spirit which distinguishes all weeds and which never by any possibility marks a better quality of plant, vegetable or animal.