User:Mksmith

NOTE: I was recently hired by a leading publisher of reference works as principal editor of a large, complex editing & indexing project, which means the rest of my life is pretty much on hold and I will not be contributing much of consequence to Wiki-anything for probably a year or two. But I WILL be keeping an eye on my watchlist. . . .

I became aware of the Wikipedia project early in 2003 and began offering corrections and copyediting in September of that year.

I'm a retired librarian, having spent thirty years (1967-1997) on the staff of the Dallas Public Library, much of that time as the system's "History Specialist," and also several years as the library's archivist.

I'm an "army brat," having spent most of my youth overseas, which is what got me interested in history in the first place. (There's nothing like plunking down an overly Romantic adolescent in the Pantheon or the Athenian agora to foster an abiding interest in the past.) I'm not even a "native" Texan, . . . but I lived there for more years than either Stephen F. Austin or Sam Houston, so I reckon I qualify for Texas citizenship.

On retirement, I moved to south Louisiana and became involved in local history activities and organizations -- another longtime interest, since I've also been an active genealogist since the late 1960s.

Academically, I have particular interests in the late classical era (my undergraduate field), early medieval history (especially prosopography), the era of European voyages & discoveries, and the American Civil War in the Southwest (my M.A. thesis dealt with the Texas invasion of New Mexico). In genealogy, I have a special interest in the interconnections among the medieval European aristocracy, and I also edited a quarterly journal for a state society for ten years (2000-2010).

And I've had a part-time side business for more than twenty years as a freelance book-indexer and copyeditor, working mostly for U.S. commercial publishers and university presses. So the urge to tidy up other peoples' work is considerable.

Okay, I confess: I've been playing around with userboxes of late (what the hell -- and I think it's an interesting Wiki phenomenon), and my comparatively modest collection can be found on this separate page, so as not to clutter up this one.

So far, I've either written from scratch or made (what I hope are) significant additions to the following articles:

• Texas historical figures, especially from the Civil War period:
  • Gen. Ben McCulloch
  • Gen. Henry E. McCulloch
  • Gen. Richard M. Gano
  • Samuel Maverick Jr
  • I've also started a "Texans" category.

• Other Texas & Louisiana topics:
  • Chili con carne
  • Love bugs
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- mostly the history section, so far
  • List of parishes of Louisiana
  • Saint James Parish, Louisiana
  • Tabasco sauce
  • University of North Texas (where I did my MLS many, many years ago)

• U.S. historical biography:
  • Gen. Daniel Sickles
  • Christopher Gadsden
  • James Gadsden
  • Gen. Matthew Arbuckle

• Literary and book-oriented topics:
  • Library
  • Cecelia Holland
  • Mary Renault
  • Chick lit

• Classical & medieval history (especially military affairs):
  • Venice (added military info)
  • Normans (added military info)
  • Synoikismos
  • Theseus

Articles (from scratch or heavy rewrites) are in the works on the following subjects:

• Cajun vs. Creole cuisine
• Labrys -- correct the Cretan history
• Dallas, Texas -- add much history & bibliography
• Red River County, Texas -- add much history & bibliography
• Red River raft
• Library classification -- add much clarification
• Cutter number
• War of Jenkins Ear (one of my favorite strange & amusing little wars) -- add much history & bibliography
• Battle of Port Hudson -- add much history & bibliography
• Local history -- needs a complete overhaul
• H. Allen Smith
• Frank X. Tolbert

For what it's worth, I maintain a personal web page reflecting many of my interests (especially history & genealogy), called Booksmith. Plus, as a lifelong book-reviewer, I maintain an ever-expanding review blog at Wordpress, also called (wait for it . . .) Booksmith.

This user participates in WikiProject History.