Cordwainer Smith Books

In the Old English, "wag" was woven work on a wall, now more commonly, "wainscotting," and no longer woven. "Cordwainer Smith" was the pseudonym of Dr. Paul M. A. Linebarger (1913-1966),a weaver of short science fiction which was very unlike most of the genre written before or since. Dr. Linebarger was a prominent US citizen who was accomplished in several fields and languages, who was likely a genius, and who kept his identity to himself until not long before his death. In his Cordwainer Smith role, he was really a weaver of enchanting characters, strange ruling systems, amazing cultures and situations, and bizarre worlds, all of a unique viewpoint.

"The Best of Cordwainer Smith" is just that: a dozen of his best short science fiction stories, and these, for the first time, organized chronologically within Linebarger's "Instrumentality of Mankind".

My book is copyright 1975, begins with a short biography of Cordwainer Smith, followed by the Table of Contents, and a listing of "surrounding events" on the page following. It is 342 pages in a sewn binding and green boards. Each story has a short introduction by the Editor, J. J. Pierce, in addition to his contributions listed above.

Since there are other anthologies extant, it seems prudent to list the contents here in order:

Scanners Live in Vain
The Lady Who Sailed the Soul
The Game of Rat and Dragon
The Burning of the Brain
Golden the Ship Was---Oh! Oh! Oh!
The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal
The Dead Lady of Clown Town
Under Old Earth
Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
The Ballad of Lost C'mell
A Planet Named Shayol

There is no need to try to rate the stories, as they are all excellent.
Scanners Live in Vain was not Linebarger's first published story, but it was so different and compelling that it started the years-long puzzle as to Cordwainer Smith's actual name.

All of the stories are compelling, each in its own way.