15 Facts About Cordwainer Smith

Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, known by his pen-name Cordwainer Smith, was an American author of science fiction.

Cordwainer Smith was a US Army officer, a noted East Asia scholar, and an expert in psychological warfare.

Cordwainer Smith was one of science fiction's more influential authors despite his early death at 53.

Cordwainer Smith was sometimes sent to boarding schools for safety.

Cordwainer Smith helped organize the army's first psychological warfare section.

Cordwainer Smith used his experiences in the war to write the book Psychological Warfare, regarded by many in the field as a classic text.

Cordwainer Smith eventually rose to the rank of colonel in the reserves.

Cordwainer Smith was recalled to advise the British forces in the Malayan Emergency and the US Eighth Army in the Korean War.

Cordwainer Smith traveled extensively and became a member of the Foreign Policy Association, and was called upon to advise President John F Kennedy.

Cordwainer Smith is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 35, Grave Number 4712.

Linebarger's identity as "Cordwainer Smith" was secret until his death.

Some of Cordwainer Smith's stories are written in narrative styles closer to traditional Chinese stories than to most English-language fiction, as well as reminiscent of the Genji tales of Lady Murasaki.

Cordwainer Smith's works consist of one novel, originally published in two volumes in edited form as The Planet Buyer, known as The Boy Who Bought Old Earth, and The Underpeople, and later restored to its original form as Norstrilia ; and 32 short stories.

Cordwainer Smith used many of their concepts in his fiction.

Smith's most celebrated short story is 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.