Charles Allen Smart, son of George and Lucy (Allen) Smart, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1926. He worked for Doubleday, Page & Co. and Doubleday Doran (publishers) as an editorial assistant from 1927 until 1930. He began his lifelong writing career in 1930, and two years later became an English instructor at Choate School in Connecticut. His life changed when his aunt died in 1934 and left him her farm in Chillicothe, Ohio.