Some of his best-known works were librettos for the composers Victor Herbert and Reginald De Koven.

His first wife was Lena Reed (born August 21, 1868), whom he married on October 12, 1887 in Chicago, Illinois.

They married on November 23, 1906 in Boston, Massachusetts, after she had been divorced on June 12, 1906 by her first husband James Thomas Sothoron, Jr. (1867–1913).

While on a brief holiday in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on New Year's Day in 1936, Smith died of a heart attack in his room at the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel.

His younger brother Robert Bache Smith (June 4, 1875 – November 6, 1951) was also a successful lyricist.