Willard M. Smith is an author about whom very little public information is available; the only record in our database shows a single work, Gloves, Past and Present. Judging from its title, the book takes gloves as its subject, tracing their historical development and the changing forms and uses they have taken across different periods. It belongs to the genre of writing that approaches a topic through a particular everyday object, a kind of work that generally requires the author to sift through documentary and material sources and to present the findings in an informative, narrative style rather than a theoretical one. Although the author's biography, nationality and professional background cannot be confirmed, the book itself offers readers interested in the history of gloves an accessible introductory account and reflects the author's attention to the historical development of ordinary objects.
