The mid-twentieth century saw American science fiction expand steadily, drawing writers from varied backgrounds into its pages. Evelyn E. Smith was one such figure, born in New York City on July 25, 1922, who worked as both a science fiction writer and a compiler and creator of crossword puzzles.

Smith pursued two distinct professional paths across her career. As a novelist and science fiction writer, she contributed to the genre during a period when it was attracting a growing readership in the United States. Alongside this literary work, she was also active as a crossword puzzle compiler and creator, a craft that demands its own precise and disciplined use of language. The combination of these two occupations placed her in an unusual position among American writers of her era, with her output spanning imaginative fiction and the structured demands of puzzle construction.

Smith died in New York City on July 4, 2000, the same city where she had been born seventy-seven years earlier. Her name is recorded in the Library of Congress Name Authority File under the authorized form "Smith, Evelyn E.," a designation that reflects the dual professional identity she maintained as both a fiction writer and a crossword puzzle compiler across the span of her working life.