Smith, Ray
Entry updated 23 February 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1941-2019) Canadian teacher and author who is of sf interest for the title story (Autumn 1967 Tamarack Review) of Cape Breton Is the Thought-Control Centre of Canada (coll 1969), in which a successful Near-Future American Invasion of Canada is occasioned by the election of an insufficiently right-wing national government. His later work, set in various Canadian and European venues, often invokes story-types and tone of voice typical of contemporary Fantastika; he has been compared to his near contemporary Donald Barthelme for works like Century (1986) and A Night at the Opera (1992), which are, all the same, ultimately nonfantastic. [JC]
James Raymond Smith
born Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: 12 December 1941
died Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: 20 June 2019
works (highly selected)
- Cape Breton Is the Thought-Control Centre of Canada (Toronto, Ontario: House of Anansi, 1969) [title story first appeared Autumn 1967 Tamarack Review: hb/illustrator credit illegible]
links
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