David C. Smith is an American author of fantasy, horror, and suspense fiction, medical editor, and essayist. He is best known for his heroic fantasy novels, including his collaborations with Richard L. Tierney featuring characters created by Robert E. Howard, notably six novels featuring Red Sonja.
As a fiction writer, Smith has authored or coauthored twenty-four novels and numerous short stories. Smith's most active period as a writer was from the 1970s through the early 1990s; since then, he has concentrated on his primary career as a medical editor and currently is managing editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
In the 1970s, Smith was one of several young writers who reinvigorated the genre of sword-and-sorcery in such publications as Space and Time and The Diversifier.
