Ursula K. Le Guin

Lore & Background

Ursula Kroeber was born in Berkeley, California, to anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber and author Theodora Kroeber. She earned a master's degree in French from Columbia University and began doctoral studies, but abandoned them after marrying historian Charles Le Guin in 1953. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s, achieving major success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), the latter winning both Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, making her the first woman to do so.

Cultural anthropology, Taoism, feminism, and the writings of Carl Jung strongly influenced her work. Many of her stories used anthropologists or cultural observers as protagonists, and Taoist ideas about balance appear in several writings. She often subverted typical speculative fiction tropes, such as by writing dark-skinned protagonists in Earthsea, and used unusual stylistic devices in works like Always Coming Home (1985). Social and political themes including race, gender, sexuality, and coming of age were prominent.

Le Guin refused a Nebula Award in 1977 to protest the Science Fiction Writers of America's revocation of Stanisław Lem's membership. She resigned from the Authors Guild in 2009 over its endorsement of Google's book digitization project. In a 2014 speech at the National Book Awards, she criticized Amazon's control over the publishing industry. She died at her home in Portland on January 22, 2018, at age 88.

Reader's Guide

Le Guin's writing was enormously influential in speculative fiction and received intense critical attention. She earned eight Hugo Awards, six Nebula Awards, and twenty-five Locus Awards. In 2003, she became the second woman honored as a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The U.S. Library of Congress named her a Living Legend in 2000, and in 2014 she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her work influenced authors including Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, Neil Gaiman, and Iain Banks. After her death, critic John Clute wrote that she had 'presided over American science fiction for nearly half a century,' and author Michael Chabon called her the 'greatest American writer of her generation.' Her exploration of alternative political structures, such as in 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' and The Dispossessed, and her subversion of genre conventions, remain central to her legacy.

Did You Know?

• Le Guin was the first woman to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, for The Left Hand of Darkness.
• She refused a Nebula Award in 1977 to protest the revocation of Stanisław Lem's membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America.
• Le Guin's father, Alfred Louis Kroeber, was an anthropologist who studied Ishi, the last known member of the Yahi tribe.
• She resigned from the Authors Guild in 2009 over its endorsement of Google's book digitization project.