Cordwainer Smith — pronounced CORDwainer[1] — was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913–August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Events 911 - Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. Linebarger was also a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare. The US Department of Defense defines psychological warfare ( PSYWAR) as" The planned use of Propaganda and other Psychological actions
Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller Atomsk), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C. Atomsk, first published in 1949 is a Cold War Spy novel by "Carmichael Smith" one of several pseudonyms used by Paul Linebarger who wrote fiction Forrest" (for the novels Ria and Carola).
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Biography
Linebarger was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was Paul M. W. Linebarger, a lawyer and political activist with close ties to the leaders of the Chinese revolution of 1911. A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law as an attorney, Counsel or Solicitor; a person Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change The Xinhai Revolution or Shinhai Revolution ( also known as the 1911 Revolution or the Chinese Revolution, began with the Wuchang Uprising As a result of those connections, Linebarger's godfather was Sun Yat-sen, considered the father of Chinese nationalism. A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's Baptism. Sun Yat-sen ( November 12, 1866 &ndash March 12, 1925) was a Chinese Revolutionary and political leader often As a child, Linebarger was blinded in his right eye; the vision in his remaining eye was impaired by infection. Blindness is the condition of lacking Visual perception due to Physiological or Neurological factors When he later pursued his father's interest in China, Linebarger became a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Chiang Kai-shek ( POJ: Chiúⁿ Kài-se̍k Jyutping: zoeng2gaai3sek6 GCB ( October 31, 1887 &ndash His father moved his family to France and then Germany while Sun Yat-sen was struggling against contentious warlords in China. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. As a result, Linebarger was familiar with six languages by adulthood.
At the age of 23, he received a Ph. D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University. From 1937 to 1946, Linebarger held a faculty appointment at Duke University, where he began producing highly regarded works on Far Eastern affairs. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Duke University is a private Research University located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. While retaining his professorship at Duke after the beginning of World War II, he began serving as a second lieutenant of the U.S. Army, where he was involved in the creation of the Office of War Information and the Operation Planning and Intelligence Board. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The United States Office of War Information (OWI was a US government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services He also helped organize the Army's first psychological warfare section. In 1943, he was sent to China to coordinate military intelligence operations. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of major.
In 1936, Linebarger married Margaret Snow. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They had a daughter in 1942 and another in 1947. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They divorced in 1949. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1950, Linebarger married Genevieve Collins; they remained married until his death from a heart attack in 1966, in Baltimore, Maryland. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar.
In 1947, Linebarger moved to the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, where he served as Professor of Asiatic Studies. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He used his experiences in the war to write the book Psychological Warfare (1948), which is regarded by many in the field as a classic text. He eventually rose to the rank of colonel in the reserves. He was recalled to advise the British forces in the Malayan Emergency and the U. The Malayan Emergency was a State of emergency declared by the British colonial government of Malaya in 1948 and lifted in 1960 as well as an insurrection and S. Eighth Army in the Korean War. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the While he was known to call himself a "visitor to small wars", he refrained from becoming involved in Vietnam, but is known to have done undocumented work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all He traveled extensively and became a member of the Foreign Policy Association, and was called upon to advise then–U. The Foreign Policy Association ( FPA) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world S. President John F. Kennedy. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of
Linebarger expressed a wish to retire to Australia, which he had visited in his travels, but died at age 53 in the U. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. S. Colonel Linebarger is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 35, Grave Number 4712. Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States, established during the American Civil War His widow, Genevieve Collins Linebarger, was interred with him on 16 November 1981. Events 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981
Linebarger was long rumored to have been the original for "Kirk Allen," the fantasy-haunted subject of "The Jet-Propelled Couch," a chapter in psychologist Robert M. Lindner's best-selling 1954 collection of case histories, The Fifty-Minute Hour. [2] According to Cordwainer Smith scholar Alan C. Elms,[3] this fannish speculation first reached print in Brian Aldiss's 1973 history of science fiction, Billion Year Spree; Aldiss, in turn, claimed to have gotten the information from Leon Stover. Brian Wilson Aldiss, '''OBE''', (born August 18, 1925 in East Dereham, Norfolk, England) is a prolific English Leon Eugene Stover (1929 - 2006 was an Anthropologist, a Sinologist, and a science fiction fan, who wrote both fiction and nonfiction [4] More recently, both Elms and librarian Lee Weinstein[5] have gathered much circumstantial evidence to support the case for Linebarger being "Allen," but both concede that there is no direct proof that Linebarger was ever a patient of Lindner's or that he suffered from a disorder similar to that of "Kirk Allen. " Even if one accepted the likelihood that there is some connection, one would also have to conclude that the case history is so heavily fictionalized that "Kirk Allen" might be a composite of Linebarger and another patient, and that it is impossible to assign biographical details from "Allen" to Linebarger. A composite character is a character in a fictional work that is composed of two or more individuals [6]
Science fiction writing
A notable characteristic of Linebarger's science fiction is that most of his stories are set in the same universe, with a unified chronology; some anthologies of Linebarger's fiction include a chart, with each of his stories inserted into the appropriate slot in the timeline.
Linebarger's stories are unusual, even by the standards of science fiction, sometimes being written in narrative styles closer to traditional Chinese stories than to most English-language fiction. Chinese literature extends back thousands of years from the earliest recorded dynastic court Archives to the mature fictional Novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty The total volume of his science fiction output is relatively small, due to his time-consuming profession and his early death: Smith's writings consist of only one novel, originally published in two volumes in edited form as The Planet Buyer, also known as The Boy Who Bought Old Earth (1964), and The Underpeople (1968), later restored to its original form as Norstrilia (1975); and 32 short stories (all of them gathered in The Rediscovery of Man, including two versions of the short story War No. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Norstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, which he used for his science-fiction works (though several related Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Rediscovery of Man The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (ISBN 0-915368-56-0 is a 1993 book containing the complete collected short fiction of Science 81-Q). All these writings suggest a rich universe developing over long periods of time, but leave much to be guessed by the reader.
Linebarger's cultural links to China are partially expressed in the pseudonym "Felix C. Forrest", which he used in addition to "Cordwainer Smith": Sun Yat-Sen suggested to Linebarger, his godson, that he adopt the Chinese name "Lin Bai-lo" (林白楽), which may be roughly translated as "Forest of Incandescent Bliss". Sun Yat-sen ( November 12, 1866 &ndash March 12, 1925) was a Chinese Revolutionary and political leader often In his later years, Linebarger proudly wore a tie with the Chinese characters for this name embroidered on it.
As an expert in psychological warfare, Linebarger was very interested in the then newly-developing fields of psychology and psychiatry, and inserted many of their concepts into his fiction. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Psychiatry is a medical specialty which exists to study, prevent, and treat Mental disorders in Humans Psychiatric His fiction often has religious overtones or motifs, particularly evident in characters who have no control of their actions. In "Christianity In the Science Fiction of 'Cordwainer Smith'", James P. Jordan argued for the importance of Anglicanism to Linebarger's works back to 1949. [7] However, Linebarger's daughter Rosana Hart has indicated that he did not become an Anglican until 1950 and was not strongly interested in religion until later still. [8] In the introduction to the collection Rediscovery of Man it is indicated that from around 1960 he became more devout and expressed this in his writing. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Linebarger's works are sometimes included in analyses of Christianity in fiction, along with the works of authors such as C. S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963
The bulk of Cordwainer Smith's stories are set in an era starting some 14,000 years in the future. The Instrumentality of Mankind rules Earth and goes on to control other planets later inhabited by humanity. In the Science fiction of Cordwainer Smith, the Instrumentality of Mankind refers both to Smith's personal Future history and universe and to The Instrumentality attempts to revive old cultures and languages in a process known as the Rediscovery of Man. This rediscovery can be seen either as the initial period when humankind emerges from a mundane utopia and the nonhuman underpeople gain freedom from slavery, or as a continuing process begun by the Instrumentality, encompassing the whole cycle, where mankind is constantly at risk of falling back to its bad old ways.
Smith's stories describe a long future history of Earth, from a postapocalyptic landscape with walled cities defended by agents of the Instrumentality to a state of utopia in which freedom can be found only deep below the surface, in long-forgotten and buried anthropogenic strata. This article focuses on future histories in general For Robert A Anthropogenic effects processes objects or materials are those that are derived from Human activities as opposed to those occurring in Natural environments without These features may place Smith's works within the Dying Earth subgenre of science fiction, but it can be argued that they are ultimately more optimistic and distinctive. The Dying Earth Subgenre is a sub-category of Science fantasy which takes place at the End of Time, when the Sun slowly fades and the laws of the universe
Smith's most celebrated short story is perhaps his first-published, Scanners Live in Vain, which led many of its earliest readers to assume that "Cordwainer Smith" was a new pen name for one of the established giants of the genre. " Scanners Live in Vain " is a Science fiction short story by Cordwainer Smith (pen name of Paul Linebarger set in his Instrumentality of Mankind It was selected as one of the best SF short stories of the pre-Nebula Award period by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and appeared in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964. The Nebula Award is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA for the best Science fiction / Fantasy fiction Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA (ˈsɪfwə or /ˈsɛfwə/ was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight.
Linebarger's stories feature strange and vivid creations, such as:
- Planet Norstrilia, a semi-arid planet where an immortality drug called stroon is harvested from gigantic virus-infected sheep, each weighing more than 100 tons. Norstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, which he used for his science-fiction works (though several related Norstrilians are nominally the richest people in the galaxy and defend the secret of stroon with sophisticated weapons (as shown in the story Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons). "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" is a classic Science fiction short story written by Cordwainer Smith, first published in Galaxy Magazine High taxes on Norstrilia itself ensure that everyone lives a frugal, rural life, like farmers in old Australia.
- The punishment world of Shayol (cf. Sheol), where criminals are punished by the regrowth and harvesting of their organs for transplanting
- Planoforming spacecraft, which are crewed by humans telepathically linked with cats and which defend themselves against the attacks of unknown malevolent entities in space with the flash of small atomic weapons (these entities are perceived by the humans as dragons, and by the cats as gigantic rats)
- The Underpeople, animals modified genetically into human form and intelligence to fulfill servile roles, and treated as property. Sheol (pronounced "Sheh-ole" in Hebrew שאול (Sh'ol is the "abode of the dead" the " Underworld " "the common A spacecraft is a Vehicle or machine designed for Spaceflight. Several stories feature clandestine efforts to liberate the underpeople and grant them equal rights. They are seen everywhere throughout regions controlled by the Instrumentality.
- Habermans and their supervisors, Scanners, whose sensory nerves have been cut to block the "pain of space", and who perceive only by vision and various life-support implants. A nerve is an enclosed cable-like bundle of peripheral Axons (the long slender projections of Neurons. Other modes of perception can be temporarily restored to scanners by "cranching". New technology removes the need for the treatment, but resistance among the Scanners ensues, forming the basis of the story Scanners Live in Vain.
- Early works in the timeline include neologisms such as manshonyagger which are not explained to any great extent, but serve to produce an atmosphere of strangeness. A neologism (from Greek neo = "new" + logos = "word" is a word that although devised relatively recently in a specific time period has been These words are usually derived from corruptions non-English words. For instance, manshonyagger resembles the German words "menschen" meaning, in some senses, "men" or "mankind", and "jaeger", meaning a hunter. Manshonyaggers roam the wild lands between the walled cities, suggesting that they are creatures or machines designed to hunt humans.
- Character names in the stories often derive from words in languages other than English. Smith seemed particularly fond of using numbers for this purpose. For instance, the name "Lord Sto Odin" in the story Under Old Earth is derived from the Russian words for "One hundred and one".
Published non-fiction
- 1937, The Political Doctrines of Sun-Yat-Sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu I, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press
- 1938, Government in Republican China, London: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-88355-081-4
- 1941, The China of Chiang K'ai-shek: A Political Study, Boston: World Peace Foundation, ISBN 0-8371-6779-5
- 1948, Psychological Warfare, Washington: Infantry Journal Press; revised second edition, 1954, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce
- 1951, Foreign milieux (HBM 200/1), Dept. of Defense, Research and Development Board
- 1951, Immediate improvement of theater-level psychological warfare in the Far East, Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins University
- 1954, Far Eastern Government and Politics: China and Japan (with Djang Chu and Ardath W. The Operations Research Office (ORO was a civilian military research center founded in 1948 by the United States Army. Burks), Van Nostrand
- 1956, "Draft statement of a ten-year China and Indochina policy, 1956-1966", Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania
- 1965, Essays on military psychological operations, Special Operations Research Office, American University
Published fiction
Selected short stories
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Notes and references
- ^ Elms, Alan C. Atomsk, first published in 1949 is a Cold War Spy novel by "Carmichael Smith" one of several pseudonyms used by Paul Linebarger who wrote fiction Norstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, which he used for his science-fiction works (though several related The Rediscovery of Man The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (ISBN 0-915368-56-0 is a 1993 book containing the complete collected short fiction of Science Norstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, which he used for his science-fiction works (though several related , Cordwainer Smith Pronunciation Guide, Ulmus. net, accessed 20 August 2006. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ Lindner, Robert. The Fifty-Minute Hour. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1954.
- ^ Elms, Alan C. "Behind the Jet-Propelled Couch: Cordwainer Smith & Kirk Allen," New York Review of Science Fiction, May 2002.
- ^ Aldiss, Brian W. Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction. New York: Doubleday, 1973.
- ^ Weinstein, Lee. "In Search of Kirk Allen," New York Review of Science Fiction, April 2001.
- ^ See also 'Cordwainer Smith Scholarly Corner by Alan C. Elms
- ^ Jordan, James B. , Christianity In the Science Fiction of "Cordwainer Smith", Contra Mundum, No. 2 Winter 1992
- ^ "Biography and memories of Paul M. A. Linebarger, who was Cordwainer Smith", www. cordwainer-smith. com
External links
- The Remarkable Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith Maintained by his daughter Rosana
- Cordwainer Smith at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Personal data on Paul Linebarger
- Arlington National Cemetery: Linebarger
- Unofficial Cordwainer Smith Biography Page
- LibraryThing author profile
- Cordwainer Smith's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online
- Forest of Incandescent Bliss at Helix SF
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Smith, Cordwainer |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony; Smith, Carmichael; Bearden, Anthony; Forrest, Felix C. |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American author and psychological warfare expert |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 6, 1966 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
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