Linebarger was blinded in one eye as a child, and the sight in the other eye was weak. His family moved to France and then Germany before returning to the States. He was educated in political science at Johns Hopkins University, receiving his PhD in 1936. He then received a faculty position at Duke University in 1937 and began to produce excellent works on Far Eastern affairs. When the Second World War broke out, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and spent time in China, where he became friends with Chinag Kai-Shek. He rose to the rank of major by the end of the war. In 1947, he was appointed professor of Asiatic Studies at Johns Hopkins. Using his war-time experiences, he published Psychological Warfare in 1948 to great acclaim. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the reserves. He was recalled as an advisor during the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War. He married in 1936, but divorced in 1949. The following year, he married Genevieve Collins. His writing career began in earnest in the early 1950s and he adopted the pseudonym of Cordwainer Smith. His works include The China of Chiang Kai-shek (1941), Scanners Live in Vain (1950), The Burning of the Brain (1958), Nancy (1959), Think Blue, Count Two (1963), Space Lords (1965) and Under Old Earth (1966).