// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Elbert H. Smith? A smith-er of great ideas?

For other people with the same name, see Elbert Smith.

Elbert Herring Smith was the author of the best selling epic poem Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak in 1846. Smith was referred to as "The Wisconsin Bard", and his Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak is considered the first volume of poetry printed in Wisconsin. The first edition was published in Milwaukee credited to "a Western Tourist" with editions under Smith's name published in New York in 1848 and 1849.

References

• Mielke, Laura L. (Spring 2002). ""native to the question" William Apess, Black Hawk, and the Sentimental Context of Early Native American Autobiography". The American Indian Quarterly. 26 (2). The University of Nebraska Press: 246–270. doi:10.1353/aiq.2003.0023. S2CID 162264349.
• "Odd Wisconsin: Joke played on poet leads to best-selling book". Wisconsin State Journal. April 16, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22.
• Beidler, Philip D. (Spring 1998). "A.B. Meeks great American epic poem of 1855; or, the curious career of The Red Eagle". Mississippi Quarterly. 51 (2). The University of Nebraska Press: 275, 16p.
• Full text of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak