Surname: Smart Forename(s): Alexander b. 26 April 1798. d. 19 October 1866. Nationality: Scottish. VIAF.
Working-class poet and sketch writer, writing in Scots and English. Born in Montrose,
Angus. Attended Montrose Academy. Apprenticed to a watchmaker in Montrose , then moved
to Edinburgh and worked as a type compositor. Author of Rambling Rhymes (1834, 1845) and Songs of Labour and Domestic Life (1860). At the end of his life suffered serious mental ill health, following reviews
of his 1860 volume. Biographical information: Reilly, Mid-Victorian Poetry, p. 423; James Grant Wilson (ed.), The Poets and Poetry of Scotland, vol. 2, Harper & Brothers, 1876, p. 172. (KH, AC)