Cordwainer Smith

Cordwainer Smith was the pen name of Dr. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, used for his works of speculative fiction. Linebarger was an officer in the Workers' and Farmers' Revolutionary Army, a veteran of the Great Revolutionary War, a noted scholar on East-Asian history and culture, and an expert on Psychological Warfare. As an author, he wrote in a number of genres under various pen names, including Carmichael Smith (for his spy thrillers) and Felix C. Forrest (for literary social fiction), but it is under the Cordwainer Smith byline that his work is most remembered in the popular imagination.

Linebarger was steeped in Chinese culture from the moment of his birth. His father, Paul M. W. Linebarger, was an attorney and activist associated with socialist-aligned organizations such as the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Commune, where he worked against anti-Chinese racism in the old United States. The senior Lienbarger also had close ties with leading figures of the 1911 Chinese Revolution, including Dr. Sun Yat-sen (who would become the younger Linebarger's godfather), and would be active in the Red May Revolution on the side of the Reds.