Kenneth Smith

Ken

Who is Kenneth Smith?

Kenneth Smith is an author, artist, columnist and retired philosophy professor.

Give me a brief bio of Kenneth Smith.

Dr. Kenneth R. Smith was born in Austin, Texas in 1943. He graduated from SF Austin High School in 1962. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1966. He entered graduate school at UT as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, then was accepted for graduate school at Yale in 1967, getting his Ph.D. there in 1972. His dissertation was on the concept of spirit in Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. He began teaching at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 1971, teaching courses in classical civilization, 19th century European philosophy, ethics, political theory, nihilism, esthetics, and other subjects. He moved to Dallas in 1983.

What is Kenneth Smith's background as an artist?

Kenneth Smith's fantasy artwork appeared in such late-60s fanzines as Squa Tront, Witzend, Reality, Heritage, Anomaly, and Phase One. He has produced cover art for fantasy and science fiction paperback books, and the magazines Creepy and Eerie. In 1971 he began publishing Phantasmagoria, a magazine of his own fantasy stories, comics and art. The series ran for five issues, until 1977. He has worked as a commercial artist on print campaigns for American Airlines, Colter's, Baylor Hospital, and others. His stories and art have appeared in Heavy Metal, the fantasy anthology Sorcerers, Spectrum I, Ray Bradbury's Dinosaur Tales, and the children's books The Bat Family and The Rebus Bears. In 1990 Fantagraphics published Phantasmagoria II.

What is Kenneth Smith's background as a columnist?

In 1988, Kenneth Smith began writing a series of columns on philosophy and modern culture for the magazine The Comics Journal, beginning with Dramas of the Mind.

What books has Kenneth Smith written?

Kenneth Smith has written Studies in Nihilism & Ideology (1974), Otherwise (1998), and Webs (2000).

Are you Kenneth Smith?

I am not.

Who are you?

I'm Dave. ☺

Are we talking about the same Kenneth Smith?

There are many other "Kenneth Smith"s out there, some of them writers, artists, or teachers. A little careful discernment can determine if you've got the right one or not.

I'm new to Kenneth Smith. Where should I start?

Start here. This is a collection of Kenneth Smith quotes. Go through them a bit, see what you think.

Okay, done. What next?

If you liked what you read there, you can go through his magazine columns. Here they are:

Wow, that's going to take a while to get through. I'm making my way through it, though. Anything else?

Here is an interview with him.

Can I see some of Kenneth Smith's artwork?

Sure. Here.

And here.
And some here.

Is there anything on YouTube?

Mais oui! This is the first part of my first interview with him, and you should be able to click through to the rest of the series from there.

Can you tell me a bit about Kenneth Smith's books?

Studies in Nihilism & Ideology is straight philosophy, pretty much the same as his columns. Otherwise and Webs are collections of short philosophical aphorisms, stories and thought-pieces in the style of Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human. Here are ads for them.

What is Kenneth Smith saying?

Basically, that modernity has extirpated the aristic values that make life worth living.

I am interested in acquiring some of Kenneth Smith's books. How can that happen?

Contact me, and I will hook you up.

To contact me:

Facebook
Meetup
Skype: daveroel
Yahoo: myxyz42

Is there anything else I should know?

Kenneth Smith had an email list for many years that is now inactive. Here's a collection of selected highlights from it.

He also conducts small discussion groups over Skype. It's not completely out of the question that you could participate, if you're interested. Contact me, and we'll see. Here's a teaser for the current class.
Here's a Tumblr blog for Kenneth Smith quotes.
Here's his page on ComicVine. And here's his page on Comicbookdb. And here's his page on isfdb.

How can I get in touch with Kenneth Smith?

Contact me, and I'll see what I can do.

Why did you make this page?

I've been reading Kenneth Smith since I was a teenager and he's greatly impacted my thinking and understanding. He's one of my top recommended philosophers / thinkers / teachers / writers. There's very little information about him on the internet, and people often contact me for information about him, so I decided to put all the information on a page I can easily direct people to. And I think Kenneth's material is excellent, well worth publicizing and promoting.

Okay, cool. Thanks for your time.

Sure thing. I'm glad you find Kenneth's work of value. I'd be interested to hear what you think. ☺