Cordwainer Smith

Cordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer Smith – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. Linebarger was also a noted East Asian scholar and expert in psychological warfare.

Biography

Linebarger was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Paul M.W. Linebarger, a lawyer and political activist with close ties to the leaders of the Chinese revolution of 1911. As a result of those ties, Linebarger's godfather was none other than Sun Yat-sen, considered the father of Chinese nationalism. When he pursued his father's interest in China, Linebarger became a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek. As a child, Linebarger was blinded in his left eye; the vision in his remaining eye was impaired by infection. His father followed Sun Yat-sen into exile in Japan, before moving his family to France and then Germany. As a result of these experiences, Linebarger was familiar with six languages by adulthood. At the age of 23, he received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Related Topics:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Lawyer - Activist - Chinese revolution of 1911 - Godfather - Sun Yat-sen - China - Chiang Kai-shek - Blinded - Japan - France - Germany - Johns Hopkins University

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Linebarger held a faculty appointment at Duke University from 1937 to 1946, where he began producing highly regarded works on Far Eastern affairs. While retaining his professorship at Duke after the beginning of World War II, he began serving as a second lieutenant of the U.S. Army, where he was involved in the creation of the Office of War Information and of the Operation Planning and Intelligence Board. He also helped organize the Army's first psychological warfare section. Closer to the end of the war, he was deployed to China to head the psychological warfare program there and help coordinate U.S.-China military operations. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of major.

Related Topics:
Duke University - 1937 - 1946 - World War II - U.S. Army - Office of War Information - Operation Planning and Intelligence Board

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In 1936, Linebarger married Margaret Snow, and they had a daughter in 1942. They had a second child, another daughter, in 1947, and divorced in 1949. In 1950, Linebarger married for the second time, to Genevieve Collins; they remained married until his death in 1966.

Related Topics:
1936 - 1942 - 1947 - 1949 - 1950 - 1966

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In 1947, he moved to the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and served as Professor of Asiatic Studies. He used his experiences in the war to write the 1948 book Psychological Warfare, which is regarded as a classic text in the field. He eventually rose to the rank of colonel in the reserves and was recalled to advise the British forces in the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. Eighth Army in the Korean War. While he was known to call himself a "visitor to small wars", he refrained becoming involved in Vietnam, but is known to have done undocumented work for the Central Intelligence Agency. He traveled extensively and became a member of the Foreign Policy Association, and was called upon to advise then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Related Topics:
1947 - School of Advanced International Studies - Malayan Emergency - Korean War - Vietnam - Central Intelligence Agency - Foreign Policy Association - John F. Kennedy

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He had expressed a wish to retire to Australia, which he had visited in his travels, but died of a heart attack at age 53. Linebarger is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 35, Grave Number 4712. His widow, Genevieve Collins Linebarger, was interred with him on 16 November 1981.

Related Topics:
Australia - Heart attack - Arlington National Cemetery - 16 November - 1981

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