James Smart

James Smart, author of "Adonijah Hill's Journal," was born in 1930 in the Harrowgate section of Philadelphia, where his family had lived since the Civil War. It had once been an 18th century resort village, but in his day had become a city industrial neighborhood. His grandparents piqued his curiosity about the life and lore of by-gone days.

He sold his first magazine articles while still a senior at Philadelphia's prestigious Northeast High School. Upon graduation in 1948, he went to work at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, then America's largest evening newspaper. He was on the staff for 25 years, including 14 years as a featured columnist. Much of his work related to the city's history.

During the American Bicentennial period of the 1970s, Smart produced for The Bulletin a heavily researched series of daily articles describing life in Philadelphia during the American Revolution, as the founding fathers gathered in the city to form the new nation. In 1976, he also created award-winning monthly tabloid Sunday sections describing the Revolutionary War.

Through the 1980s and '90s, Smart went off into other pursuits, editing two local business publications and serving as media relations manager for a major bank. In 1990, he returned to his two favorite interests, writing and Philadelphia history. Since 1990, he has written a column that appears in local weekly newspapers. In 2001, his large format book "Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History'" was published, sponsored by local businesses and organizations. Its introduction is illustrated with the surprising photograph of a page from a rare dictionary that was in use in 1656, when Philadelphia's founder, William Penn, was a British schoolboy. It shows that the name Philadelphia was defined as meaning "brotherly and sisterly love!"

Smart and his wife live in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. He has two children, three grandchildren and a great-grandson. It was his musing about the vast difference between the life of his grandson and that of his grandfathers, who were both 14 in 1876, that inspired him to create "Adonijah Hill's Journal", describing life in Philadelphia during the great Centennial Exhibition. Read his web site at jamessmartsphiladelphia.com