A Few More Cordwainer Smith Online Resources

This site is the only website completely devoted to the science fiction of Cordwainer Smith. There are many interesting CS pages out there, though, and a very small selection is listed here.

When I began this website in 2000, I spent a lot of time reviewing sites. Now, I've decided to do what I do best —write—and let the search engines provide current, accurate links to Cordwainer Smith and other science fiction sites. So here are just a few links. All are set to open in a new page in your browser.

You can read quite a few of Cordwainer Smith's short stories online at no cost, and here are links for the stories:

The Dead Lady of Clown Town

Under Old Earth

No, No, Not Rogov!

War No. 81-Q

Mark Elf

The Queen of the Afternoon

Scanners Live in Vain

The Lady Who Sailed The Soul

When the People Fell

 ...and then if that whets your appetite, you can buy two ebooks with  these stories and more, at http://www.webscription.net/p-462-we-the-underpeople.aspx and

http://www.webscription.net/p-615-when-the-people-fell.aspx

These links are to Baen books, which sells a lot of science fiction in ebook format.

Graham Sleight wrote a really good critical essay in Locus, April 2007, Yesterday's Tomorrows: Cordwainer Smith

  http://www.ulmus.net/ace/menus/ace_s5_c7_b0_d0_x.html
Alan C. Elms is the leading Cordwainer Smith scholar, and this is his site. Includes a description of the two main Smith/Linebarger archives.

The University of Kansas has a collection of Cordwainer Smith papers. Here's the science fiction page for the Department of Special Collections... among the collections of SF authors' papers are those of Cordwainer Smith. I couldn't find much online, but this is at least an access point for scholars.

Cats, cruelty and children: Idealism and morality in the Instrumentality of Mankind is the title of a 1999 article by Angus McIntyre. This article discusses Christianity. McIntyre writes, "The Quaker interpretation of Christianity with its absence of any priesthood to intercede between God and Man and its emphasis on the personal and basic aspects of worship and morality rather than an impersonal and hierarchical organization, is ideally suited to Smith's view of Christianity and his overall moral programme."

He's commenting on a character named Liana in "The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-all," who was Quaker. Well, I became involved with the Quakers during the Vietnam War though it wasn't till some years after my father's death that I 'officially' became one myself. Hmm... and I thought I was striking out on my own! I was accustomed to comments I'd made at the breakfast table and many other details of my life turning up in his stories, but I didn't know about this reference.

The complete article is at http://www.raingod.com/angus/Writing/Essays/Literary/Smith.htm

http://www.fanac.org/worldcon/AussieCon/w99-rpt.html#smith
An interesting summary by Evelyn C. Leeper of a presentation that Alan Elms did on CS in Australia, at the 1999 Aussiecon Three. (This summary is also available at one or two other sites you may come across.)

http://members.tripod.com/templetongate/csmith.htm
Galen Strickland has written quite a lengthy piece, describing the stories and the universe that CS created.

 The Internet Speculative Fiction Database Cordwainer Smith page is not unlike Mike Bennett's Illustrated Bibliography here on this site, which you can get to from the menu.

In French and German:

This site includes information, a link towards a biographical article,and towards French editions of my father's work, sometimes with a scan of the cover, sometimes with the summary blurb.

Here's a site with a link to some information and a nicely done little CS pamphlet in German that they sell.

Some General Science Fiction Sites that Include Cordwainer Smith

New England Science Fiction Association, www.nesfa.org, has done a masterful job of publishing two hardcover books of Cordwainer Smith's, the ones I sell here on the site. Based in the Boston area, they have meetings as well as a publishing wing which publishes a variety of old and new writers. It's amazing what these people do as a volunteer organization.

Espana's science fiction site is incredibly comprehensive, with (last time I looked) 383 authors and 31 artists. Actually a collection of what Espana calls "speculative fiction" to broaden the category a bit, it's an amazing resource. The Cordwainer Smith page has an illustration of the Best of Cordwainer Smith front page, then other Smith links, a bio, and a bibliography. (List pages for authors and artists on the site are titled Alpha Ralpha Boulevard and The Gebiet... quiet CS references.)

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue199/site.html
Scifi.com chose this website as SF site of the week some time ago, and you have to scroll down the page to find the article. Their site-wide search engine returned a number of things for Cordwainer Smith.

http://www.adherents.com/adh_sf.html
"Religious affiliation of the 50+ most famous Science Fiction/Fantasy authors" including CS.

You can also check my blog for more links as I'll comment on other sites there, without coming back to add those links here.