Prolific libertarian novelist and essayist L. Neil Smith died on August 27. Here's the memorial site.
I'm not even going to take a stab at an obituary. Although we diverged in a big way politically over the years, he always was, and remains, larger than life to me.
I considered him a mentor both in politics (he recruited me into the Libertarian Party in 1996 and I was HMFIC of a couple of "draft him for LP presidential nominee" campaigns) and writing (we "met" when I asked him for reprint permission on an essay he wrote).
And I considered him a friend, though we only met in person once and often argued pretty brutally and bitterly, as befitted both our personal styles (I'm sure I learned a bit of that from him, but was predisposed to it anyway). I miss him already although we hadn't communicated in some time.
He's best known for his first novel, The Probability Broach, and if you haven't read it you should. Then move on to others. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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