He is best remembered for his work at the Knopf publishing house, where he edited B. Traven, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, and Langston Hughes.
[1][2] In 1928, Smith began working for Alfred A. Knopf, where he was eventually made simultaneously editor-in-chief and managing editor.
Smith, though never a Communist Party member, was a committed Marxist;[2] but the book was undogmatic and was well received in the mainstream literary academy, including favorable notice from critics such as Austin Warren.
[3] Smith moved in 1947 to Hollywood, where he worked in the film industry, first for Samuel Goldwyn as a script editor.
[1] In 1994 Smith published a memoir, A World Remembered: 1925-1950, which has been used academically as an autobiography supporting historical texts.