Conference noted::sf

    Cordwainer Smith (real name: Paul Linebarger) wrote the following.
    List only includes fiction published in book form (I don't have
    the time or ambition right now to hunt down uncollected stories
    --- though I don't think there are any, actually). The contents
    of the collections overlap quite a bit.
    
    YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME		[1963]	collection
    THE PLANET BUYER			[1964]	novel
    SPACE LORDS				[1965]	collection
    QUEST OF THE THREE WORLDS		[1966]	collection
    THE UNDERPEOPLE			[1968]	novel
    UNDER OLD EARTH AND OTHER EXPLORATIONS
    					[1970]	collection
    STARDREAMER				[1971]	collection
    NORSTRILIA				[1975]	novel
       [This is the original form of the novel that was earlier
    	split into two, revised, and published as the two above-
    	listed novels.]
    THE BEST OF CORDWAINER SMITH	[1975]	collection
    THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKIND	[1979]	collection

    non-science fiction novels:
    
    RIA		[1947]	as Felix C. Forrest
    CAROLA	[1948]	as Felix C. Forrest
    ATOMSK	[1949]	as Carmichael Smith

    
    --- jerry

Linebarger had a pretty interesting career.  He was born in China 
(Sun Yat-sen was his godfather), and spent much of his
life as a China hand in the State Department.  He played a big part in
the psychological warfare department during the Korean war.  He came 
up with a Chinese slogan for "I surrender!" which also sounded like
"Forward, comrades!".  That saved the lives of a lot of surrendering 
soldiers, and he once said that he considered that his proudest achievement.

/jlr

    I read UNDERPEOPLE when I was about ten and it was all over.  I
    was hooked on SF forever.  * Sigh * I have a soft spot in my heart
    (head?) for this underrated author.

    After encountering Smith, I never was the same again.  Still some
    of the most incredible SF I've ever read (20 years later).

    A greeting from the Far East.  I'm a Japanese reader of SF.

    My favorite SF is the works by Cordwainer Smith.
    Smith's world is mysterious, bizarre, wonderful!

    Scanners the half-man, the Instrumentality, Chinesia, Sailship,
    Earthport, Pinlighter vs. Dragon/Mouse in Space^2, Golden Ship,
    Norstrilia, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, C'mell the underperson,
    Rod McBan 151st bought the Earth, etc., etc....

    In Japan, Smith is still a mysterious writer.  There is nothing but
    "Norstrilia" and a part of "The Best of Cordwainer Smith" as the
    commercial translation into Japanese.
    So I purchased and perused the original text.  But I cannot find the
    following text...

      'The Boy Who Bought Old Earth' (appeared in Galaxy magazine, April 1964?)
      "The Planet Buyer" (Book? first published in 1964,
					the first part of "Norstrilia")
      'The Store of Heart's Desires' (appeared in IF magazine, May 1964?)
      "The Underpeople" (Book? first published in 1968,
					the second part of "Norstrilia")

    I'm anxious to read those text.
    Do you know of any information about those text and others? (ex: May I
    get copy of those text?  There are newly published Smith's works?
    There are studies of Smith and his works?  etc....)
    Please tell me.

    Regards(In Japanese, "Do~zo Yoroshiku Onegai Shimasu"),
    nom.


    P.S.
    Another question:
    Is Harlan Ellison's "Last Dangerous Visions" (that publish Smith's
    'Himself in Anachron') in print?
    I have a French collection of Smith, that carry French version of
    'Himself in Anachron.'  I cannot quite understand French ;-)

    Konnichi wa.

    I checked my library and found the original of The Planet Buyer.  It
    was published by Pyramid Books (R-1084), October of 1964.  The
    copyright page mentions that "The Boy Who Bought Old Earth" is a
    shortened version of "The Planet Buyer" which appeared in Galaxy
    Science Fiction in April 1964.

    It has been a long time since I read it so I guess I'll stick on my to
    read pile.  If I should find another copy at the used book stores that
    I peruse on a regular basis, I will let you know.

    regards,

    Bob

    

    re: .5
    
    Cordwainer Smith is still a mysterious writer here too.  I think
    I have about 8 or so books by him...  I'll check the titles.
    I think, but it's been a long time since I read "The Planet Buyer",
    that if you've read "Norstrilia", then you won't find anything new
    in "The Planet Buyer".
    
    							/alan

    re: .5
    
    I checked "The Planet Buyer" against "Norstrilia" last night, and
    the chapters in the first part of "Norstrilia" have the same names
    as those in "The Planet Buyer".  The last chapter in "The Planet
    Buyer" seems to be a little different from the same chapter in
    "Norstrilia"; an effort to make a complete story out of half the
    real story?
    
    You may have my copy of "The Planet Buyer" if you like,  we can
    make arrangements of line.
    
    							/alan

    re: .6,.7,.8

    Thanks lot, I'm very glad to have received your replys.

    re: .6, .8

    I heard there are differences between "Norstrilia" and previous works 
    ("The Planet Buyer", "The Underpeople", 'The Boy Who Bought Old
    Earth' and 'The Store of Heart's Desires').
    I actually read over "The Planet Buyer" and "The Underpeople" in a
    French collection I have, I found some differences from "Norstrilia".
    "Norstrilia" don't seem to carry at least a part of "The Planet Buyer" 
    and the 1st chapter of "The Underpeople".
    I believe "Norstrilia" is edited and made _some changes_ by J.J.Pierce.
    I have no idea whether his changes is significant or not.
    I want to read those pre-"Norstrilia" works with original text.
    (I don't mind whether the medium is book or xerox)

    Thanks,
    nom.

    Another vote for Cordwainer Smith; my favorite story is "The Crime and
    Glory of Commander Suzdal".
    
    I also have the Paul Linebarger (== Cordwainer Smith) textbook on
    psychological warfare.  He writes textbooks as well as he writes
    fiction.
    
    	-Bill

This timeline is taken from the collection 'The Instrumentality of Mankind'
    
    edited by Frederick Pohl. The timeline was compiled by J.J. Pierce.
=========================================================================
    
A.D.2000 -

Stories - 'No, No, not Rogov'

Events - Forgotten First Age of Space

A.D. 3000 -

Stories - 'War No. 81-Q' 

Events - The Ancient Wars, culminating in the collapse of all nations save
China. Retreat of the true men into isolated cities, with most of
Earth left to Beasts, manshonyaggers and Unforgiven

A.D. 4000 -

Stories - 'Mark Elf'

Events - Advent of the Vomacts and return of vitality to mankind. Rule of the
Jwindz succeeded by that of the Instrumentality.

A.D. 5000 -

Stories - 'Queen of the Afternoon'

Events -

A.D. 6000 -

Stories - 'Scanners Live in Vain' 'The Lady Who Sailed The Soul'

Events - Second Age of Space. Earth repopulated. Expansion to the nearer
stars. Survivors of old Paradise VII colony settle Old North Australia.

A.D. 7000 -

Stories - 'When the People Fell'

Events - Fall of China. Discovery of Stroon.

A.D. 8000 - 

Stories - 'Think Blue, Count Two' 'The Colonel Came Back From Nothing At All'

Events - Discovery of Planoforming. Early signs of anti-Utopia

A.D. 9000 - 

Stories - 'The Game of Rat and Dragon' 'The Burning of the Brain'

Events - Age of Planoforming. Settlement of thousands of worlds, compared to 
200 by sailship.

A.D. 10000 - 

Stories - 'From Gustible's Planet'

Events - Stabilization of Utopia. Life spans standardized at 400 years.
Programming of embryos, growing use of robots, underpeople.

A.D. 11000 - 

Stories - 

Events - Possible appearance of the Daimoni. Adaptation of men to strange
worlds like Viola Siderea.

A.D. 12000 - 

Stories - 'Himself in Anachron' (?)

A.D. 13000 - 

Stories - 'The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal' 'Golden the Ship
Was - Oh!Oh!Oh!'

Events - ascendancy of the Bright Empire and other potential rivals
to the Instrumentality

A.D. 14000 - 

Stories - 'The Dead Lady of Clown Town'

Events - Martyrdom of D'Joan, rebirth of old strong Religion. Founding
of the line of Jestocost

A.D. 15000 - 

Stories - 'Under Old Earth' 'Drunkboat'

Events - Appearance of Lady Alice More, partner to Lord Jestocost in 
the Rediscovery of Man. Holy Insurgency. Visions from Space 3

A.D. 16000 - 

Stories - 'Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons' 'Alpha Ralpha Boulevard'
'The Ballad of Lost C'Mell' 'Norstrilia' 'A Planet Named Shayol'

Events - Civil rights for underpeople. Odyssey of Rod McBan. Spread
of Rediscovery of Man.

A.D -----

Stories - Casher O'Neill Series - 'On the Gem Planet' 'On the Storm
Planet' 'On the Sand Planet' 'Three to a Given Star' (These four stories
were collected and published as 'Quest of Three Worlds')

Events - Embargo on religion

Projected series: The Lords of the Afternoon - Common destiny of men 
and underpeople; religious climax

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: With Smith's own notebooks lost, chronology is largely a matter of
guesswork, based on internal evidence. But the order of the stories and
surrounding events can be fairly well established.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following stories, not from the Instrumentality timeline, are also 
included in the collection, and listed here for reference.

'Western Science is so Wonderful'
'Nancy'
'The Fife of Bodidharma'
'Angerhelm'
'The Good Friends'

    Re .11
    
    I've read some of Smith's stories, and have encountered the
    underpeople, but what are Beasts, manshonyaggers, Unforgiven, and
    Daimoni?
    
    (For those who haven't encountered the underpeople, they're a serf or
    slave class of humanoids derived from animals, thus there are
    cat-people, dog-people, cattle-people, rat-people, goat-people, etc.)
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    If I remember right, the manshonyaggers are an anglicized
    spelling of the German Menschen Jaegers, or people hunters. 
    Killer robots, basically.  The Daimoni were an extremely advanced
    race of humanoids who built Earthport, the N miles-high
    interstellar landing platform.  /jlr

Article: 326
From: [email protected] (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews #8: Cordwainer Smith
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 12 Aug 93 23:03:16 GMT
 
		Belated Reviews #8:  Cordwainer Smith
 
For this review I'm going to abandon the tastes-change-and-you-may-need-to-
appreciate-these-books-as-period-pieces tone I've been taking.  I'm also 
going to adopt a less neutral tone:  If you haven't read Cordwainer Smith's 
science fiction, you should give it a try.  There's no guarantee that you'll
like his work, of course -- tastes differ -- but you owe it to yourself to
find out.
 
Not that there's much *to* try.  In its most recent mass-market version,
his science-fictional corpus consists of four books -- two novels and two
short-story collections.  Most of these take place against a common
background, the future time of the Rediscovery of Mankind.
 
In this time, fifteen thousand years from now, humanity is recovering from
utopia.  Things were too safe and too stable for too long, and the result was
stagnation and malaise.   The Instrumentality -- the quirky meritocracy that
rules the Earth (and is a power through much of the galaxy) -- decided to 
shake things up, reintroduce risk and change.
 
One of the main plot elements in Smith's work is the Underpeople --
intelligent humanoids, genetically engineered from animals, who provide
most of the labor in this future.  The Underpeople have no civil rights.
Not that there's any shortage of other plot elements!  Smith's stories are
imaginative enough to offer the sense of wonder which is so often missing
from the science fiction of authors who grew up reading science fiction.
 
The short stories (****).  Cordwainer Smith's stories have appeared in
several forms since the fifties and sixties.  The collection I've seen
most often is the Del Rey reprinting from the late seventies, which printed
the stories in two volumes, "The Best of Cordwainer Smith", and "The 
Instrumentality of Mankind".  The stories aren't uniformly wonderful.
My personal opinion is that "The Best of..." really does have the best 
stories, while the second volume contains more than its share of clunkers.
 
Among these best stories are "The Ballad of Lost C'mell" and "The Dead
Lady of Clown Town", which are key episodes in the never-finished tale
of the liberation of the Underpeople.  There's the oft-anthologized "The 
Game of Rat and Dragon", about a cat-and-mouse approach to fighting a space 
war.  There's "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons", which introduces Norstrilia, 
which is the richest known planet, and one of the poorest.  Several others.
It seems insufficient to just rattle of titles, but the stories don't lend 
themselves to brief summaries.  No matter, either you've read them and know 
whether they're for you, or you haven't, in which case it's worth your time 
to find out.
 
Norstrilia (****) is Smith's major novel.  It's not as intense as his
best stories -- the length makes that difficult -- but it may serve as a
better introduction to his work and milieu, for readers who prefer novels.
It features Rod McBan the 151st, who was born on Norstrilia, and would 
normally have spent his entire life there.  To escape an enemy, however, he
takes the advice of a forbidden computer which leads him through market 
manipulations which make him the richest man in the galaxy.  It also makes 
him the galaxy's number-one *target* which is something his neighbors could 
do without, so they send him on a trip to Earth.  (He bought it in the course
of those manipulations; he might as well go and claim it.)  Rod McBan's tour
of the universe created by Cordwainer Smith is, of course, our own tour, as 
well.  
 
For the sake of completeness, I'll mention the other novel, "Quest of the 
Three Worlds" (*), which I consider to be one of his weaker efforts.  Read 
this if you like Smith's writing, but it's not the best place to start.
 
=============================================================================
 
Given what I wrote at the start, there's not much point in including my
usual disclaimers and caveats here, so I won't.
 
%A  Smith, Cordwainer
%O  aka Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger
%T  The Best of Cordwainer Smith
%T  The Instrumentality of Mankind
%T  Norstrilia
%T  Quest of the Three Worlds
%O  These are the titles under which Smith's work is collected in the
%O  relatively-easy-to-find Del Rey reprints of the mid-1970s.  His
%O  works have been reprinted before and since.
 
-----
Dani Zweig
[email protected]
 
Roses red and violets blew
  and all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew -- Edmund Spenser

    _The_Rediscovery_of_Man_ has just been published by NESFA Press.
    It contains *all* of Cordwainer Smith's short science fiction,
    including "War No. 81-Q" and "To Himself in Anacron".  For more
    information (including how to order the Cordwainer Smith concordance)
    write:
    
    	NESFA Press
    	P.O. Box 809
    	Framingham, MA  01701-0203
    
    						Ann B.