Have you met C'mell, the cat girlygirl who helped Rod McBan
achieve his heart's desires?
Or Rod himself, the Norstrilian boy who inadvertently bought
Old Earth one night? Or Martel, the scanner who was cranched at
a crucial moment?
No? Then you are one of the lucky ones.
You can
look forward to meeting the remarkable mind of Cordwainer Smith.
There is good reason that one of his books was titled You
Will Never Be The Same. (That particular book is now out
of print, but its contents are still stretching readers' minds
in newer collections.)
Yes? Then
extend your acquaintance here...
Wherever
on Earth you come from... and Cordwainer Smith fans come from
every continent except Antarctica.... you will find much to
interest you on this website.
When we emerge
from one of Smith's stories, it is with a sense of enrichment.
Life seems sometimes more tragic, sometimes more luminous...
But
don't take my word for it...
I am his daughter, and not exactly objective.
(That does
not mean I am all-adoring. Nothing that relates to Cordwainer
Smith is simple, and growing up under the influence of that
mind removed all possibility of my being "normal."
But then, if you're here, you're probably not normal either! In
our family, the very word normal was usually said with
a slight curl to the lip.)
Do take a
look around. The menu will lead you to discussions of his writing,
the beginnings of some stories, family albums, a bibliography
illustrated with magazine covers, a page of my ramblings, the
Cordwainer Smith Foundation annual Rediscovery Award and its winners,
art inspired by Cordwainer Smith, items for sale, links, and much
more.
If you don't
get around to it all at one sitting, Control-D or the Mac equivalent
will add the site to your favorites or bookmarks.
For years
I've been selling my father's books directly from this site, but
now that my husband and I am traveling in various parts of the
world more often, we are simplifying our business.
So
there are some good SALES going on right now.
I offer
you for purchase from this site while they last:
I will
continue to offer
Cordwainer
Smith has had a tremendous effect on the field of science
fiction. Ursula LeGuin spoke of Smith's "obstinate idealism."
James Patrick Kelly said in one his award-winning stories,
"I was reading Galaxy. I even remember the story: 'The
Ballad of Lost C'Mell' by Cordwainer Smith. The squirrels
must have been chittering for some time, but I was too engrossed
by Lord Jestocost's problems to notice."
Robert
Silverberg and many others have credited Smith with pointing
the way to new areas for science fiction to explore. Many
writers have tried to imitate his style, not an easy thing
to copy well.
He died
in 1966, just as his fame was beginning to blossom. And that
was when it became known that Cordwainer Smith was a pseudonym
for Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, a scholar, a diplomat,
a spy, a military man, and more.
"Better than any writer we've yet seen, Smith represents
the sense of awe and wonder that is the heart of science
fiction."—Scott Edelman
"Magnificently weird"—John Clute
This
website is a result of readers' comments. Late one night
I was at amazon.com, and I wondered what reaction my father
was getting there. So I began reading the readers' reviews,
and there were so many people who loved the stories!
- Someone
had cried upon learning that Cordwainer Smith had died
and thus there would be no more stories.
- Someone
else had learned to read in order to read the science
fiction stories.
The
next morning I sat down and outlined this site.
Rosana
Hart
The
spy novel Atomsk, which my father wrote as Carmichael
Smith, is now available for immediate download via Clickbank.
You can also sign up with Clickbank to sell it from your
site and make a few bucks.
See
details on the Atomsk page.
Oncein
a while, I get emails from Cordwainer Smith fans around
the world. I had to share this one from Greece because it
captures so much about my father's world... Here is most
of it, with Yannis' permission:
I'm writing
to you in order to tell you that I am an, should I say,
avid admirer of your late father's work. Every time I read
one of his Instrumentality stories it is like being transferred
into this future world.
I do
not think it an exaggeration to assert that all of your
father's stories emit (if I may say) this special kind of
liveliness and appeal peculiar to themselves: when you start
reading anyone of them, it feels, at first, so remote, so
utterly detached from anything you know and experience in
everyday life, yet, while you read on, suddenly you find
your very self, your very being, all surrounded by this
magnificent universe Cordwainer Smith had envisioned; and
you never know when you did cross the boundary line (if
there is, actually, any) between the worlds.
The uniqueness of Cordwainer Smith lies
in the fact that he describes a world which, though most
extraordinary in its every aspect, is run throughout by
a very real sense of cogency and cohesion, which turns this
alternative universe into palpable reality. But who can
really say that such a cosmos doesn't exist already? I,
for one, though I may not be able to prove its existence,
yet I cannot find, either, any adequate and convincing reasons
why such a society shouldn't or couldn't exist somewhere,
somewhen.
I hope
I haven't tried your patience. I am just a lover of fine
literature, and I happen to believe that your father's work
is one of its exquisite specimens.
Friendly yours,
Yannis
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