L. Neil Smith


Lester Neil Smith III, better known as L. Neil Smith, is an American libertarian science fiction author and political activist. His works include the trilogy of Lando Calrissian novels, all published in 1983: Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka. He also wrote the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probability Broach, each of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian science fiction novel. In 2016, Smith received a Special Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Libertarian Futurist Society.

Early life

Smith was born in Denver, Colorado on May 12, 1946. His father was an Air Force officer, and his childhood was spent in various places including Waco, McQueenie, and La Porte, Texas; Salina, Kansas; Sacramento, California; and Gifford, Illinois and then St. John's, Newfoundland and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, where he graduated from high school.

Writing career

Several of his works constitute the North American Confederacy series:
Three novels constitute the Lando Calrissian series. The novels are set in the Star Wars expanded universe, between the events of the Star Wars films and Episode IV: A New Hope, and concerned con-artist Lando Calrissian, first introduced in the film The Empire Strikes Back as an associate of Han Solo and previous owner of the Millennium Falcon. The three novels were collected as The Lando Calrissian Adventures Omnibus Edition.
Other works:
Smith joined the Libertarian Party in 1972. He served on the Platform Committee in 1977 and 1979, and in 1978 ran for the state legislature in Colorado, losing to Ronald Strahle by 10,895 votes to 1,925.
In 1999, Smith announced that he would run for president in 2000 as an independent if his supporters would gather 1,000,000 online petition signatures asking him to run. After failing to achieve even 1,500 signatures, his independent campaign quietly died. He next tried an abortive run for the Libertarian Party nomination, which ended almost as quickly when, in the California primary, Harry Browne overwhelmingly defeated him, 71% to 9%.
Although Browne was chosen by the party's 2000 national convention, Smith, because of a dispute between the Libertarian Party's national organization and its Arizona affiliate, appeared as the Libertarian Party candidate for president on the Arizona ballot. He and running mate Vin Suprynowicz received 5,775 votes in the national election, less than 0.01% of the vote. Shortly thereafter, Smith's supporters announced a new 1,000,000-signature petition drive; however, in late 2003, with the new drive once again failing to achieve even a small fraction of that total, Smith announced that he would not pursue another political office.
Smith endorsed the Free State Project and Badnarik's campaign for president in 2004.
Smith is the founder of, and regularly contributes essays to , an anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian journal.

Published works

Fiction

Coordinated Arm series