Bertha H. Smith is the author of Yosemite Legends. Public information about her is very limited: her full English name, nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not reliably recorded, and only this one work of hers is held in the collection. Judging from this book, Smith's work centers on the folk legends of the Yosemite region of the United States, presenting local stories in written form so that readers can encounter the cultural imagination behind this natural landscape. Such material generally emphasizes readable narration and fidelity to the original tales, and has the character of collecting and retelling folk literature. Although further details of Smith's life and other writing remain to be verified, Yosemite Legends, as the work by which she is known, still offers a useful text for studying the transmission and early compilation of legends in this region.
