Author explored fantasy, feminism
Ursula K. Le Guin, PORTLAND, ORE. the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who explored feminist themes and was best known for her Earthsea books, has died at 88.
Le Guin died suddenly and peacefully on Jan. 22 at her home in Portland, Oregon, after several weeks of health concerns, said her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin.
“She left an extraordinary legacy as an artist and as an advocate of peace and critical thinking and fairness, and she was a great mother and wife as well,” he said.
“Godspeed into the galaxy,” Stephen King tweeted, saying Le Guin was a literary icon, not just a science fiction writer.
Le Guin won an honorary National Book Award in 2014 and warned in her acceptance speech against letting profit define what is considered good literature.
Despite being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 — a rare achievement for a science fictionfantasy writer — she often criticized the “commercial machinery of bestsellerdom and prizedom.”
“I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river,” Le Guin said in the speech.
“We who live by writing and publishing want — and should demand — our fair share of the proceeds. But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.”
Her best-known works, the Earthsea books, have sold in the millions worldwide and have been translated into 16 languages.
Born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 21, 1929, Le Guin also won the Newbery Medal, the top honour for U.S. children’s literature.
Neil Gaiman, a fellow Newbery, Hugo and Nebula recipient, mourned her death on Twitter and called Le Guin “the deepest and smartest of the writers.”