Richard Penn Smith (March 13, 1799 – August 12, 1854) was an American playwright who wrote twenty plays, of which fifteen were performed.

He wrote a largely fictitious account of events leading up to and at the Battle of the Alamo, which was presented as the diary of Davy Crockett.

[4] He wrote a series of columns named "The Plagiary" for a local newspaper.

That same year, he sold The Aurora and returned to legal practice to support his theatrical work.

[7] He was initially interred in a mausoleum on his estate but was reinterred along with 14 family members to a plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery.