Do you have a copy of the two-CD set of Cordwainer Smith Reading "On the Sand Planet?"

Mine has gone missing. Well, it is probably someplace in our storage unit in Colorado but I am not anywhere near there, and when I looked for quite a while last summer, it was not to be found. None of the people I've asked have a copy either.

I'd like to turn it into a set of downloadable mp3 files, but I can't do that without getting my hands on one of of the ones I sold or gave away.

If you have a set and could either send it to me or make me a copy, I would be very grateful. Please contact me via the Contact Us page.

The 2-CD set is made from old tapes where Cordwainer Smith was preparing "On the Sand Planet" for a typist. At first, he just sounds like he's dictating, but even so many fans have enjoyed hearing his voice. But then, very soon, the natural storytelling flair that I remember so well from my childhood takes over.

How the CDs were made

When my husband and I moved one time, I found a couple of old cassette tapes labeled CS dictating 'On the Sand Planet.'(1965). With considerable curiosity, I popped a tape into my player.

It sounded terrible, with a lot of background noise. But it was all there, though in a slightly different form than in The Rediscovery of Man. The tapes had been made as dictation for a typist, and at first, my father was saying "comma" or "new paragraph" constantly, but as the story went along, his natural dramatic flair took over.

A local sound engineer, Grant Freeman, assured me he could improve the sound, and so I went over with the tapes. He put them on his system and started pushing buttons... and my father's voice came out clearly!

Grant thought he could improve things even more, so I left the tapes with him. A few days later, I ran into him at a party. "I'm taking out that punctuation," he said, "and it's really cleaning up nicely."

When I listened to his final results, I was amazed.

First, I burst into tears at hearing my father's voice.

Then I listened to the story, all the way through. Every now and then I missed some words, but you can follow the story just fine.

So I decided to offer it for sale. It runs an hour and 45 minutes, and we've produced it as a two-CD set. It's far from the quality of something made today — with a strong background hum still present, I don't know if it would be legible in a car CD player, where the sounds of traffic and the car's engine might be too much for it. But if you are listening in a reasonably quiet environment, the rhythm of the story catches you up.