Cordwainer Smith

Cordwainer Smith was the pseudonym of the American writer and political scientist Paul Linebarger (1913–1966). Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Linebarger studied political science and later became a professor of international politics. He also worked as an Asia expert for U.S. military intelligence and served on the advisory staff of President John F. Kennedy. In addition to writing a handbook on psychological warfare, he published fiction under several pseudonyms. As Cordwainer Smith, he became known chiefly for his science-fiction stories about the Instrumentality of Mankind, written in the 1950s and 1960s. His father had contacts with the Chinese politician Sun Yat-sen, who, according to the available biographical accounts, was Linebarger’s godfather.