Kidder Smith was graced to study with Y.K. Kao at Princeton and Peter Boodberg at Berkeley. For some years he taught Chinese history at Bowdoin College, where he also directed the Asian Studies Program. He is senior author of Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (Princeton University Press, 1990); Sun Tzu—the Art of War (with Denma, Shambhala, 2001); and Having Once Paused – Poetry of Zen Master Ikkyū (with Sarah Messer, University of Michigan Press, 2015).