Gilbert Seldes was a writer and critic. He was one of the first writers to argue that popular culture was as relevant to the arts as "highbrow" culture. In the late 20s he published The Seven Lively Arts in which he defended comics, movies, jazz, and other "lowbrow" art forms.
William A. Smith is a new one to me. I looked the name up on Wikipedia. There were a bunch of judges and an artist whose career didn't really get going until the 1940s. I had even less luck with Ed Reed. A Google search turned up mostly references to a present-day (American) football player.