Lacey Baldwin Smith was an historian and author specializing in 16th century England. He was the author of Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty and Catherine Howard: A Tudor Tragedy, among other books. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Smith taught at Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University. He received two Fulbright awards, two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and other awards.He was considered one of the “big name” historians, yet his writing was considered to be as entertaining as it was erudite. He lived in Vermont during his retirement, dying at Greensboro at the age of 90. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972.