Editing Cordwainer Smith (section)

===Early life and education===
Linebarger's father, Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger, was a lawyer, working as a judge in the Philippines. There he met Chinese nationalist [[Sun Yat-sen]] to whom he became an advisor. Linebarger's father sent his wife to give birth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin so that their child would be eligible to become president of the United States. Sun Yat-sen, who was considered the father of Chinese nationalism, became Linebarger's [[Godparent|godfather]].<ref name="JH">{{Cite magazine
|last1=Stimpson|first1=Ashley|last2=Irtenkauf |first2=Jeffrey |date=5 September 2018|title=Throngs of himself|url=https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2018/fall/cordwainer-smith-paul-linebarger/|access-date=2023-02-03|magazine=The Johns Hopkins Magazine|language=en}}</ref>

His young life  was unsettled as his father moved the family to a succession of places in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He was sometimes sent to boarding schools for safety. In all, Linebarger attended more than 30 schools. In 1919, while at a boarding school in Hawaii, he was blinded in his right eye, which was replaced by a glass eye. The vision in his remaining eye was impaired by infection.<ref name=JH/>

Linebarger was familiar with English, German, and Chinese<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hornbeck |first1=Stanley K. |title=Paul M. A. Linebarger, 1913-1966: An Appreciation. |journal=World Affairs |date=1966 |volume=129 |issue=2 |pages=79–82 |jstor=20670775 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20670775 |access-date=12 July 2021}}</ref> by adulthood. At the age of 23, he received a [[PhD]] in [[political science]] from [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref name=JH/>