Elizabeth Anna Hart, née Smedley (1822–1890), was a British poet and novelist born in London.

[1] Hart wrote children's poetry with her sister Menella Bute Smedley as well as novels, including Mrs. Jerningham's Journal and The Runaway.

[4] Wood-engraver Gwen Raverat was a fan of Hart's 1872 novel The Runaway, which the artist described as "a gay, rather farcical book, which was the delight of my own childhood (and I supposed of the generation before as well) and has been very much loved by my own children, and by many others".

The Runaway was also reissued by Persephone Books with afterwords from Anne Harvey and Frances Spalding.

The Athenaeum praised Hart for "that quiet humour in which women...so often excel....The style is bright and simple throughout, without any affectation of cleverness, and the characters appear as clearly as if they had been forced to unfold themselves in whole chapters of self-analysis.