Cordwainer Smith Blog

Cordwainer Smith science fiction has been published in many languages. For years, every now and then I would get a package of books in some language I couldn’t read, sent to me by Cordwainer Smith’s literary agent. I could tell pretty much what stories were in them, but beyond that I just tossed them on a the top of bottom shelf of a bookcase somewhere. As a former librarian, I’m too much of a pack rat to throw them out. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve alread blogged about some comments about my father from his close friend, Australian Arthur Burns, in an interview with John Foyster. Here are some bits from an article Arthur wrote after my father died–they sure brought back memories for me, especially the physical description. Thanks to John Foyster for the right to use this material, which appeared initially in Australian SF Review.

He was above medium height, terribly gaunt, bald, high-nosed, narrowing in the chin; he wore severe excellently-cut suits; his favourite hat was Read the rest of this entry »

Arthur Burns was an Australian friend of my father’s. I remember him and his wife Netta, and their children, particularly from 1961, when I was a college student in France and I stayed with them in London around Christmas; they were living there for the year.

One evening as we discussed plans for the next morning, Arthur said to me with a twinkle in his eye, “Shall I knock you up around seven?” He knew perfectly well what the American meaning of that term was, and I still remember blushing while Read the rest of this entry »

It may surprise Carol McGuirk that her mind reminds me of my father’s. When I read this insightful article, nearly 40 pages long, which appeared in SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES in the summer of 2001, it seemed to me that I was watching two hawks flying — sometimes together, sometimes making huge loops alone and then reconnecting. Time and again, she puts out provocative, intriguing ideas. For example, “In my reading, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard is his most memorable symbolic representation of science fiction itself.” [p. 172] Read the rest of this entry »

Stanley G. Weinbaum was the recipient of this year’s Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award… that link takes you to my page about him and his writing on this website, which also explains the award, if you aren’t familiar with it. Read the rest of this entry »

My husband Kelly and I live much of the time nowadays in Mexico. In 2002, we were living year-round in Colorado when I got a bee in my bonnet that I had to get back to Mexico to celebrate 50 years since my first trip there with my father. That trip led to several others, and now here we are, mostly.

Here are some memories of that 1952 trip: Read the rest of this entry »

It wasn’t till mid-morning that it dawned on me that we’ve come around to September 11 again. Actually, it happened when I went to the website of a company I do some business with (Shareasale) and they were closed for the day, with a commentary which included this:

Each year, we close our offices today and we encourage others to take this day in remembrance not only of what was lost, but also in celebration of everything that we have in our lives. The families of victims from that morning would give anything to spend one morning with their loved ones, we encourage you to go out and live today to the fullest that you can.

That had me in tears… and then it got me thinking about my father. Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Elms found an unpublished article of my father’s titled “Any Fool Can Earn Money” in the University of Kansas archives. It appears to have been written in the early 1950s. Here’s part of it:

Intelligence will make money. But can intelligence spend it?

I doubt it.

It takes taste to spend money effectively. Read the rest of this entry »

By Thierry Goubier and Onil Nazra Persada

When I received these comments by email, I asked for permission to use them on the website. Thanks, you two, for granting it! –Rosana

Since getting hold of the complete French edition of Cordwainer Smith stories in 1988, we have been both interested and surprised by the liberal use of Malay words in the names of characters and places. So, with our best knowledge of Indonesian and Malay, we have tried to list all those names, their meaning in Indonesia (or Bahasa Melayu, if appropriate), with a few guesses. Most of those names are found in “Down to a Sunless Sea”, and in a few other stories, and have often very direct meanings for their subject. Read the rest of this entry »

Has anyone, to your knowledge, yet found the connection between the two works Norstrilia and Dune? Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, he did see the future. Or maybe he imagined it into being… in which case I hope some of the grimmer bits of his stories never come about! Many things which Cordwainer Smith wrote about are happening now– animal cloning, for one.

So I have started a category of this blog called “It’s Happening Now,” and when you come across news items that remind you of something in a CS story, do come by and post a comment on this post with links if it was something online you found. Please comment on what bit of what story it reminds you of!

Comments do have to be moderated by me, but unless I am traveling, I am pretty good at keeping up with that, so your comment should appear within a few hours normally. (Normally? Nothing is normal here.)

What do you remember? The year, the story, its effects on you? How old were you?

I really can’t remember when I first read his science fiction. He gave me copies of some of the magazines as they came out, but I think that well before any science fiction, I read Atomsk, the spy novel he wrote as Carmichael Smith. That link takes you to my page about it, with a long enough quote that you can get the distinctly Cordwainer-like feel to it. (I liked it so much I made it into an ebook.)