Elizabeth Smart was a Canadian poet and novelist, best known for By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept– a novella-length work of prose poetry that weaves surrealist, personalist, feminist, and anarchist ideals with Canadian, American, and European political sentiments.

Smart was born to prominent Canadian lawyer Russel Smart and his wife Emma Louise Parr–two of Ottawa’s more storied socialites. The Smart family frequently hosted Ottawa’s noted political and dramatic figures, affording their children the opportunity to grow up in the company of poet Duncan Campbell Scott, Canadian broadcasting pioneer Graham Spry, and William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth Prime Minister of Canada.