Robert W. Smith (writer) - Smith's Writings

Smith's Writings

Beginning in the 1950s, Smith wrote articles for such martial arts magazines as Budokwai Quarterly Bulletin, , Strength and Health, Black Belt, and the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, and served on the editorial board for Taijiquan Journal. Smith's articles whetted the appetite of the American martial arts community, which paved the way for Asian masters to then develop followings in the US.

Always written with a flair, Smith's numerous books and articles offer martial techniques, history, anecdotes, opinions, humor, and quotes from his wide-ranging personal training, research, and reading. Smith collaborated with his teacher Cheng Man-ch'ing on one of the earliest English taijiquan books (T'ai Chi, Tuttle, 1967), and with Benjamin Lo on a translation of one of the earliest taijiquan books: Chen Weiming's 1929 book T'ai chi ch'uan ta wen--Questions and Answers on T'ai Chi Ch'uan (North Atlantic, 1985). Smith's memoir, "Martial Musings" (1999) was written much as he taught taijiquan, i.e., with a thousand anecdotal stories and a sharp sense of humor. He wrote, co-wrote, edited, co-edited and co-translated fourteen books on the martial arts and over twenty articles with a particular focus on China. He also wrote three books under the nom de plume of John F. Gilbey. "Gilbey's" first book, Secret Fighting Arts of the World, was a work of fiction parodying various martial arts tall tales, but was widely assumed to be non-fiction when it was first released.

Smith edited the first book in English on Shaolin Temple boxing. In addition, he wrote the first books in English on baguazhang and xingyiquan, as well as the above-mentioned T'ai Chi. Smith thus, was a key figure in introducing Western readers to these three "internal" martial arts of China.

Smith was also a frequent contributor of book reviews and opinion letters to Washington-D.C.-area newspapers.