Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 to 2018) was an American author best known for the Earthsea fantasy books and for the science fiction of her Hainish universe, including “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Dispossessed”. Across a career of nearly sixty years she published more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, along with poetry, essays, translations and children’s books.
She was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, on 21 October 1929, the daughter of the writer Theodora Kroeber and the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. She studied Renaissance French and Italian literature at Radcliffe College and took a master’s degree in French at Columbia University in 1952. She began doctoral work but gave it up after marrying the historian Charles Le Guin in 1953. The couple later settled in Portland, Oregon, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Her first published work was a poem in 1959, and her first novel, “Rocannon’s World”, appeared in 1966. Wide recognition came with “A Wizard of Earthsea” (1968) and “The Left Hand of Darkness” (1969). The second of these won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, making her the first woman to win both.
The Earthsea books are set in a vast archipelago of islands with no large continents. The Hainish novels and stories share a future history in which human societies on different planets, all descended from colonies planted long ago by the world of Hain, make contact with one another again. “The Dispossessed” (1974) is an anarchist utopian novel in that setting. Other work includes the stories and novel set in the imaginary country of Orsinia, the experimental “Always Coming Home” (1985), the Catwings books for children and the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy.
“The Lathe of Heaven” was filmed for television in 1979 and again in 2002. The Sci Fi Channel adapted the first two Earthsea books as a miniseries in 2004, and the animated film “Tales from Earthsea”, directed by Goro Miyazaki, followed in 2006. Le Guin was critical of both Earthsea adaptations.
Her honours include eight Hugo Awards, six Nebula Awards, the National Book Award for “The Farthest Shore” and, in 2014, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She died at home in Portland on 22 January 2018, aged 88. Her last novel was “Lavinia” (2008).
Publication Order of Earthsea Books
A Wizard of Earthsea
1968
The Tombs of Atuan
1971
The Farthest Shore
1972
Tehanu
1990
Tales from Earthsea
2001
The Other Wind
2001
The Daughter of Odren
2014
Publication Order of Hainish Cycle Books
Rocannon’s World
1966
Planet of Exile
1966
City of Illusions
1967
The Left Hand of Darkness
1969
The Word for World Is Forest
1972
The Dispossessed
1974
Four Ways to Forgiveness
1995
The Telling
2000
Publication Order of Orsinia Books
Orsinian Tales
1976
Malafrena
1979
Publication Order of Annals of the Western Shore Books
Gifts
2004
Voices
2006
Powers
2007
Publication Order of Catwings Books
Catwings
1988
Catwings Return
1989
Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings
1994
Jane on Her Own
1999
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Lathe of Heaven
1971
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else / A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else
1976
The Eye of the Heron
1978
The Beginning Place / Threshold
1980
Always Coming Home
1985
Lavinia
2008
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Wind’s Twelve Quarters
1975
The Compass Rose
1982
Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences
1987
Searoad
1991
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
1994
Unlocking the Air and Other Stories
1996
The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
2002
Changing Planes
2003
The Wild Girls
2011
The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin
2012
Publication Order of Children’s Books
Leese Webster
1979
The Adventure of Cobbler’s Rune
1982
Solomon Leviathan’s Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip Around the World
1983
A Visit from Dr. Katz
1988
Fire and Stone
1988
Fish Soup
1992
A Ride on the Red Mare’s Back
1992
Tom Mouse
2002
Cat Dreams
2009
Publication Order of Poetry Collections
Wild Angels
1975
Hard Words and Other Poems
1981
Wild Oats and Fireweed: New Poems
1988
Going Out with Peacocks and Other Poems
1994
The Twins, the Dream: Two Voices (With: Diana Bellessi)
1997
Sixty Odd
1999
Incredible Good Fortune
2006
Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country (With: Roger Dorband)
2010
Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems
2012
Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014
2015
So Far So Good: Poems 2014-2018
2018
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
From Elfland to Poughkeepsie
1973
The Language of the Night
1979
Dancing at the Edge of the World
1989
Earthsea Revisioned
1993
Steering the Craft
1998
The Wave in the Mind
2004
Cheek by Jowl
2009
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016
2016
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters
2017
Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing (With: David Naimon)
