Laurence Dwight Smith (1895-1952)[2] was an American author specializing in crime fiction and cryptography.
Smith was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 24, 1895.
After completing preparatory school at the Phillips Academy in 1914, he attended Yale College and, after graduating, took a job with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut as a machinist.
[3][4] He married Kathryn Marsh of New York City in August 1917, and in January 1918 he enlisted in the U.S. Army.
Having been promoted to sergent in the Corps of Intelligence Police during World War I, he was discharged after the war in September 1919 at the age of 24.