Le Guin Ursula: biography, creativity, photo

Today we are talking about a woman called "bed, journalist and literary critic". Ursula Le Guin - that's her name. And the most famous works of this amazing woman are connected with the cycle about the Earthsea.

About the writer

Le Guin Ursula has long been recognized as a classic of world fiction of the 20th century. This American writer has long been at the same level with such literary giants as A. Azimov, S. Lem, R. Sheckley, R. Bradbury. And Le Guin's secret of success is a simple plot woven into a complex composition; The main characters from among ordinary people; Philosophical meaning; Affordable, but at the same time a rich and beautiful language; Proximity to reality. This all makes incredibly alive the worlds invented by the writer.

Now let's talk more about the life of the writer. In addition to the biography in this article, you can also find her photo.

Ursula Le Guin: Early Years and Marriage

The future writer was born in 1929. Her birthplace is a small town of Berkeley, located in the state of California. Her father, Alfred Kreber, was a well-known anthropologist who was engaged in oriental culture. Mother, Theodora Creber, is a writer. Her parents determined her interest in literature and oriental traditions, which are so different from European ones.

Le Guin Ursula entered Cambridge College. After his graduation, in 1952 she defended her dissertation at Columbia University . The theme of her work was: "Romantic literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance". After the defense, she received a diploma in philology and began teaching literature, working at the universities of the United States, England and Australia. Simultaneously, Ursula led science fiction courses, as this genre was her long-standing passion.

With her future husband, Charles Le Guin, she met in 1951 and almost immediately married him. To date, they have a son and two daughters. Since 1958, the family lives in Oregon, the city of Portland.

The first works

Le Guin Ursula wrote her first story in 1961. He was called "Dying Musician" and talked about those obstacles and everyday problems that prevent the genius from realizing his dreams. Subsequently, this work was included in a collection of stories about the fictional country of Orsinia, located in Eastern Europe. This country is reminiscent of Poland, which was in the middle of the 20th century under the rule of the Soviet Union.

The collection, despite the genre of alternative history, was attributed to real literature, which can be printed in a school textbook. Already in this book, Ursula Le Guin's talent was revealed.

In 1979, the Orsinian stories were supplemented with the novel "Malafrena", the main theme of which was the age-old problem of finding oneself, one's vocation and place in life.

First publication

Very interesting creativity of the writer and her biography. Ursula Le Guin first published in 1962, and this was not a story from the cycle about Orsinia. This was the story "April in Paris", published in the literary collection "Fantastica-1962". The work described the lonely people who suffer from the same problems, regardless of their social status and status in society. The story was well received by both readers and critics.

Only in 1963 were published separately fantastic stories of the writer. And in them the style peculiar to Le Guin appeared, more suitable for the story of the parables. Despite this, the complex characters of the characters and the too vivid rich narrative overshadowed the profound meaning of the works. In Russia, the most famous story of this period is the "Casket in which there was darkness". This work describes a world where there are no concepts of evil, death and shadow.

Earthsea

Le Guin Ursula has gained great popularity and fame thanks to this cycle. However, he began, oddly enough, with the usual stories published in the next collection of "Fantastica-1964". These were two works: "Liberating Spell" and "Rule of Names". It was they who initiated the cycle about the Earthsea. Even then, the writer began to add, like a puzzle, a future mysterious world full of strange magic. And in the first stories the writer begins to explain the rules of someone else's reality: no one can be called a true name, and even the strongest wizard can not take away real freedom.

Only four years later appeared the first novel of this cycle - "The Wizard of Earthsea". The work in the same 1968 was awarded the Boston Globe-Horm Book Publishing House, and a few years later received the Lewis Carroll Award. Then came the next novels of the cycle - "Tombs of Atuana" and "On the Last Shore". The first book was awarded the Nyeri Silver Medal , and the second - the US National Literature Award as the best work for children, published in 1972.

In 1979, the writer receives the title of "Grand Master of Fantasy".

A huge success was enjoyed not only by the plot of books about the Earthsea, but also by the image of the main hero - the supreme magician Geda-Yastreb. Ursula Le Guin was the first writer to come up with the story of an orphaned boy entering a school for wizards who overcome many difficulties struggling with evil and at the end achieving great power and wisdom.

After the publication of the first three novels, the writer left the Earthsea world for almost 20 years. Only in 1990 there was a continuation under the name "Tehana: the last book on the Earthsea". Readers admitted this part of the most unsuccessful, however professional critics and literature gave her high marks. Moreover, for this book the writer received the most prestigious award of American science fiction writers Nebula-90.

However, this book was far from the last, followed by a collection of short stories and another novel.

The last novel about the Earthsea

Creativity Ursula Le Guin is inextricably linked with the world of Earthsea. Probably, that's why it's so hard for a writer to part with him. To date, the last book of the cycle is the novel "On Other Winds", which in 2002 was awarded the World Fantasy Prize.

Thus, to date, 5 novels and several short stories related to the Earthsea cycle have been published. Is it the end? Only Ursula Le Guin himself can answer this question.