"Cordwainer Smith - The Best of Cordwainer Smith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Cordwainer)

THE BEST OF CORDWAINER SMITH
Cordwainer Smith
Edited, with Introduction and Notes , By J. J. Pierce

[22 jul 2002тАФproofed for #bookz]

CORDWAINER SMITH: THE SHAPER OF MYTHS
In an obscure and short-lived magazine called Fantasy Book, there appeared in 1950 a story called
"Scanners Live in Vain."
No one had ever heard of the author, Cordwainer Smith. And it appeared for a time that he would
never be heard from again in the world of science fiction.
But "Scanners Live in Vain" was a story that refused to die, and its republication in two anthologies
encouraged the elusive Smith to begin submitting to other SF markets.
Today, he is recognized as one of the most creative SF writers of modern times. But, paradoxically,
he is one of the least known or understood. Until shortly before his death, his very identity was a closely
guarded secret.
Not that Dr. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-66) was ashamed of science fiction. He was
proud of the field, and had even boasted once to the Baltimore Sun that SF had attracted more Ph.D.'s
than any other branch of fiction.
But he was a sensitive, emotional writerтАФand reluctant to become involved with his readersтАФto be
forced to "explain" himself in a way that might destroy the spontaneity of his work.
Beyond that, he probably enjoyed being a man of mystery, as elusive as some of the allusions in his
stories. Smith was a mythmaker in science fiction, and perhaps it takes a somewhat mythical figure to
create true myths.
A new acquaintance unsure of the number of syllables in Dr. Linebarger's name would be answered
by a significant gesture to the three Chinese characters on his tie. Only later would he learn the characters
stood for Lin Bah Loh, or "Forest of Incandescent Bliss"тАФthe name given him as godson to Sun Yat
Sen, founder of the Chinese Republic.
Dr. Linebarger's life was certainly several cuts above the ordinary.
At the age of seventeen, he negotiated a silver loan for China on behalf of his fatherтАФSun's legal
advisor and one of the financiers of the Revolution of 1911. He later became a colonel in U.S. Army
Intelligence, despite partial blindness and general ill healthтАФhe once shocked guests at a dinner party by
downing a "cocktail" of hydrochloric acid to aid his digestion.
Although born in MilwaukeeтАФhis father wanted to be sure that as a natural-born citizen his son
would be eligible for the presidencyтАФLinebarger spent his formative years in Japan, China, France and
Germany. By the time he grew up, he knew six languages and had become intimate with several cultures,
both Oriental and Occidental.
He was only twenty-three when he earned his Ph.D. in political science at Johns Hopkins University,
where he was later Professor of Asiatic politics for many years. Shortly thereafter, he graduated from
editing his father's books to publishing his own highly regarded works on Far Eastern affairs.
When World War II broke out, he used his position on the Operations Planning and Intelligence
Board to draft a set of qualifications for an intelligence operative in China that only he could meet-so off
he went to Chungking as an Army lieutenant. By war's end, he was a major.
Dr. Linebarger turned his wartime experiences into Psychological Warfare, still regarded as the most
authoritative text in the field. As a colonel, he was advisor to the British forces in Malaya and to the U. S.
Eighth Army in Korea. But this self-styled "visitor to small wars" passed up Vietnam, feeling American
involvement there was a mistake.
Travels around the world took him to Australia, Greece, Egypt and many other countries; and his
expertise was sufficiently valued that he became a leading member of the Foreign Policy Association and
an advisor to President Kennedy.