Edward Wyke-Smith

Edward Augustine Wyke-Smith (1871–1935) was a mining engineer and adventurer. He served with the Horse Guards in Whitehall, sailed to Australia and America as a sailor, and worked as a cowboy in the United States. He later managed mines in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Norway, and South America. He began writing after his children asked him to put the stories he told them on paper. His best-known work is the children’s novel “The Marvellous Land of Snergs” (1927), which is regarded as an inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”.