Ellen M. Cyr Smith was an American author and educator born in Canada.

[2] She is considered the first woman in the United States to widely market and sell a book series under her own name.

[1] She was the daughter of Ellen S. (née Howard) and Narcisse Cyr,[7] a clergyman and professor of French at Boston University.

Her books taught reading through synthetic phonics, by using diacritic marks to allow children to sound out newly introduced words.

Her book Advanced First Reader was published by Ginn & Company and contained engravings by Henry Wolf.

[16] She worked on another series for Ginn & Company that began publishing in 1901, called The Cyr Readers Arranged by Grades.