Here’s an email I received this week from Cordwainer Smith artist Corby Waste, reprinted with his permission:
Well, well, well, here’s something REALLY amazing - it seems that the Hubble Space Telescope has taken it’s first picture of a planet orbiting another star. Out of all the stars in the universe it happened to photograph a planet orbiting the fairly well-known star called Fomalhaut.
Who among us already knew that such a planet existed around Fomalhaut? Raise your hand if you know the answer!
The first photos of any extrasolar planet Read More »
I had never given a thought to my father’s effect on archaeology until I received this email from Dr. Alasdair Brooks, an archaeologist working in Australia [a.brooksATlatrobe.edu.au AFTER YOU REPLACE AT WITH @]. He wrote:
You might be interested in an academic paper that I’ve written about your father’s work…The premise of the paper is that your father, while obviously primarily concerned with other themes, was very sensitive to many of the issues that are relevant to modern archaeological interpretation, particularly as concerns the near-mythic power of representations of the past. As such, much of his work can be used as an allegory within which these issues can be discussed. Read More »
On July 11 of this year, I was deep into the total makeover of cordwainer-smith.com and it wasn’t till well into the morning that I did a bit of math and realized that since my father was born in 1913, that was 95 years ago. Since he died so young, in his 50s, Read More »
What can already be said about the place of Cordwainer Smith in the history of science fiction? How will he be remembered as a science fiction author?
Your opinions are welcomed. Me, I really don’t know, but Read More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
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 More »
