Joseph Smith Fletcher (7 February 1863 - 30 January 1935) was an English journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects both fiction and non-fiction and was one of the most prolific English writers of detective fiction. At age 20 Fletcher began working in journalism as a sub-editor in London. He subsequently returned to his native Yorkshire where he worked first on the Leeds Mercury using the pseudonym A Son of the Soil and then as a special correspondent for the Yorkshire Post covering Edward VII's coronation in 1902. Fletcher's first books published were poetry.