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Cordwainer Smith

コーディウェイナー・スミス

Kōdiweinā Sumisu

Aliases: Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger
Pen Names: Carmichael Smith（Used for the political thriller novel Atomsk）, Anthony Bearden（Used for poetry）, Felix C. Forrest（Used for the novels Ria and Carola）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1913-07-11 （Milwaukee, Wisconsin）
Died
1966-08-06 （Baltimore, Maryland） age 53
Nationality
United States
Languages
English, German, Chinese
Religion
Episcopalian
Residence History
Various places in Asia, Europe, and the United States

Career

Occupations
Writer, Professor, Military officer
Active Years
1937-1966
Affiliations
Duke University, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, U.S. Army Reserve
Memberships
Foreign Policy Association
Influenced By
Sun Yat-sen
Influenced
Later science fiction authors

Education

Johns Hopkins University
Political Science
Degree: PhD
Period: 不明
Year of Graduation: 1936
Country: United States
PhD in political science

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Scanners Live in Vain

1950 Science Fiction

Scanners who have their nerves cut to endure space travel.

Loss of sensesFuture society

Norstrilia

1964 Science Fiction

Story of the planet Norstrilia producing the immortality drug stroon.

ImmortalityClass society

Bibliography

  • Scanners Live in Vain
  • The Game of Rat and Dragon
  • Norstrilia

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Strange, raucous poetry blended with detailed technologyNarrative style reminiscent of traditional Chinese stories
Recurring Motifs
UnderpeoplePsychological warfare elementsReligious overtones

Health

  • Blindness in right eye
    1919年
    Replaced with glass eye, infection impaired remaining eye
  • Heart attack
    1966年
    Cause of death

Legacy

Influential science fiction author despite limited output and early death.

Archives

  • Hoover Institution Archives

In Popular Culture

  • Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award named after him

Quotes

  • We begin to read of human beings in worlds so far from our own... no longer quite human, but something perhaps better, certainly different.
    Source: Comment by Frederik Pohl (1966)

Trivia

  • Godfather was Sun Yat-sen
  • Pen name derives from cordwainer (shoemaker) and smith (blacksmith)
  • Attended more than 30 schools