Jean Edward Smith was born on October 13, 1932. He received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1954. He then went on to serve in the military from 1954-1961. In 1964, he obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Public Law and Government of Columbia University. He is a well known biographer of several works inlcuding those featuring Franklin D. Rooselvelt and Ulysses S. Grant. He is the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. In 2002 Jean Smith was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and in 2008 he won the Francis Parkman Prize. His title's inlcude: Bush, Eisenhower in War and Peace, FDR, Grant, and The Face of Justice: Portraits of John Marshall.