The Cobweb (novel)
novel by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George
The Cobweb is a 1996 novel written by Neal Stephenson with J. Frederick George, a pseudonym for Stephenson's uncle, historian George Jewsbury. It was originally published under the collective pseudonym "Stephen Bury", as was their earlier novel Interface (1994).
Setting
During the first Gulf War, Iraq fired missiles at Israel in an attempt to draw it into the conflict. This strategy was intended to lose the support of Arab/Muslim countries for the US-led military coalition.
In reality, Iraq did not use biological or chemical warheads in these missiles. The story fictionalizes that this was because the story's protagonists foiled an Iraqi scheme to develop a biological toxin.
Much of the novel takes place in the fictional Iowan twin towns of Wapsipinicon-Nishnabotna, named for the Wapsipinicon and Nishnabotna rivers. These towns are based on Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University (represented by "Eastern Iowa University" in the story), and also where Stephenson attended Ames High School.
Plot
Betsy Vandeventer, a CIA analyst in Washington D.C., discovers irregularities in federal spending which point towards Eastern Iowa University. There, her academic brother Kevin has been corralled into working for corporate interests, including unknowingly assisting Iraqi intelligence agents to be admitted to the U.S. under the guise of Jordanian research students.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Cobweb (novel)” is novel by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cobweb, novel and Neal, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “novel by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7726558. The Library of Congress control number is no2017151473. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996 and 1994.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Cobweb (novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Cobweb (novel) primary sources, The Cobweb (novel) archive and Cobweb research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Cobweb (novel)”?
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- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Cobweb (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.