Acquisitions (104): Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin: Five Novels (2024)

•

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (1929-2018)

Ursula K. Le Guin: Five Novels (2024)
[Amazon.com.au, ordered 14/3/24 - arrived 22/3/24]:

Ursula K. Le Guin. Five Novels: The Lathe of Heaven; The Eye of the Heron; The Beginning Place; Searoad; Lavinia. Ed. Brian Attebery. 1971, 1978, 1980, 1991, 2008. The Library of America, 379. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2024.

•

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Lathe of Heaven (1971)

LOA meets U. K. L-G

Nobody could accuse the 45-year-old Library of America [LOA] (1979- ) of lacking ambition when it comes to its decade-long Le Guin project. Starting in 2016, well before Le Guin's death in 2018, the library has projected a comprehensive eight-volume edition, covering most of her work - with the exception of the Earthsea books, still in print from another publisher, as well as her extensive work as an essayist and writer of children's fiction.

But perhaps it'd be simpler if I just quoted the salient parts of this 2020 article from the Tor Books website:

Library of America has begun publishing more genre fiction in recent years, including the works of Ursula K. Le Guin. According to Associate Editor Stefanie Peters, the nonprofit publisher has four more volumes of the late author’s work coming in the next couple of years.
LOA has already published four volumes of Le Guin’s work: The Complete Orsinia, Always Coming Home, and Hainish Novels & Stories, Volume One and Two.
The next volume, Peters says, publishes October 6th, and will include Le Guin’s Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, the first time that those books have been brought together into one volume. That trilogy is comprised of her novels Gifts, Voices, and Powers, set in an unnamed magical world, and which follow a series of characters as they contend with racism and slavery, as well as the powers that they have acquired.
“We also took Le Guin’s hand drawn maps from the books,” Peters says “plus one new map that hasn’t been published before — and colorized them, as we’ve done with our preview Le Guin volumes. They will appear as some really attractive endpapers in this edition.”
Beyond this upcoming edition, LOA will publish an additional three volumes of Le Guin’s work: one including all of her poetry, a collection of her complete short stories, and a collection of novels that brings together Lavinia, Searoad, The Lathe of Heaven, The Eye of the Heron, and The Beginning Place.
Library of America’s books will join some other major collections of Le Guin’s work. Saga Press recently released a collected edition of Le Guin’s Earthsea novels and short stories, as well as two massive collections of her shorter works: The Found and the Lost, and The Unreal and the Real, while The Folio Society has released a trio of new editions of her books The Left Hand of Darkness, A Wizard of Earthsea, and The Dispossessed.

- Marian Wood Kolisch, "Library of America Will Publish Four More Volumes of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Works" (March 13, 2020)

Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (1985)

I've already written a post or two about my own love of Le Guin's work: a general one on The Imaginary Museum (14/10/18), but also another on the connections between her family, the Kroebers, and Ishi, the (so-called) 'last wild Indian in America.'

This piece is intended to be more narrowly bibliographical. I got interested in the dynamics of putting together 'a collection of her complete short stories', as promised above, and thought it might be interesting to compile a list of her work in that genre focussed around the volumes of the LOA collected edition which have already appeared.

Presumably, for instance, the LOA complete short stories would not have to include any of the 13 Orsinian Tales which have already appeared in print in their Orsinia volume. Then there are another 16 SF stories in their double-volume Hainish Novels & Stories. As well as that, there are the 12 stories which make up Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991), reprinted in their latest volume, Five Novels (2024).

You'll see from the lists included below that Le Guin published at least seven major short story collections in her lifetime - not to mention a two-volume Selected Stories, together with a book of her collected novellas:

1. The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) [W] (17)
2. The Compass Rose (1982) [R] (20)
3. Buffalo Gals, and Other Animal Presences (1987) [G] (11)
4. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994) [F] (8)
5. Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996) [U] (18)
6. The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (2002) [B] (8)
7. Changing Planes: Stories (2003) [C] (16)
8. The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories. 2 Vols (2012) [T] (39)
9. The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas (2016) [N] (13)

That's not counting the following themed collections, some of them already mentioned above:

1. Orsinian Tales (1976) - included in The Complete Orsinia (2016) [O] (13)
2. Always Coming Home (1985) - included in Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition (2019) [A] (5)
3. Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991) - included in Five Novels (2024) [K] (12)
4. Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995) - included in Hainish Novels & Stories (2017) [H] (16)
5. Tales from Earthsea (2001) - included in The Books of Earthsea (2018) [E] (9)

If you look at the preliminary list of stories I've compiled below - with the aid of Wikipedia's very useful Ursula K. Le Guin bibliography - you'll see that it includes 142 stories (give or take a few, due to the reshaping and subsequent re-ordering of certain pieces).

If we subtract from these 55 stories already collected elsewhere in the LOA edition and the Books of Earthsea, then we're left with 87 to put into the stand-alone LOA Complete Stories book. Is that possible? Who knows? It certainly bids fair to be the heftiest volume in the entire edition, if so.

But then, given the girth of some of the earlier publications in the series - their collected Hawthorne (1494 pp.) or Poe (1408 pp.), for instance - that mightn't be too anomalous.

Sara Letourneau: Thank You, Ursula K. Le Guin (2018)

•

Dana Gluckstein: Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
(1929-2018)

Collections:

1. The Complete Orsinia (1961-2016)
2. The Hainish Novels & Stories (1964-2017)
3. The Books of Earthsea (1964-2018)
4. Always Coming Home (1983-2019)
5. Annals of the Western Shore (2004-2020)
6. Collected Poems (1959-2023)
7. Novels (1971-2024)
8. Stories (1961-2018)
9. Miscellaneous

---

Books I own are marked in bold:

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Complete Orsinia (2016)


Orsinia
(1961-2016)



1. The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena; Stories and Songs. Ed. Brian Attebery. Library of America, 281 (2016) [O]
   1. Malafrena (1979)
   2. Songs:
      1. Folk Song from the Montayna Province (1959)
      2. Red Berries (Montayna Province) (2016)
      3. The Walls of Rákava (Polana Province) (2016)
   3. Stories:
      Orsinian Tales (1976)
      1. The Fountains (1976)
      2. The Barrow (1976)
      3. Ile Forest (1976)
      4. Conversations At Night (1976)
      5. The Road East (1976)
      6. Brothers and Sisters (1976)
      7. A Week in the Country (1976)
      8. An die Musik (1961)
      9. The House (1976)
      10. The Lady of Moge (1976)
      11. Imaginary Countries (1973)
      Other Stories
      12. Two Delays on the Northern Line (1979)
      13. Unlocking the Air (1990)
   • The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena; Stories and Songs. Ed. Brian Attebery. The Library of America, 281. 1979, 1976. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2016.
2. Malafrena (1979)
   • Malafrena. 1979. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1981.
3. Orsinian Tales (1976)
   1. The Fountains (1976)
   2. The Barrow (1976)
   3. Ile Forest (1976) (1976)
   4. Conversations At Night (1976)
   5. The Road East (1976)
   6. Brothers and Sisters (1976)
   7. A Week in the Country (1976)
   8. An die Musik (1961)
   9. The House (1976)
   10. The Lady of Moge (1976)
   11. Imaginary Countries (1973)
   • Orsinian Tales. 1976. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories (2017)


The Hainish Cycle
(1964-2017)



4. The Hainish Novels & Stories. Ed. Brian Attebery. 2 vols. Library of America, 296-97 (2017) [H]
   
   Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories I (2017)
   
   
   
   1. Vol. 1:
      1. Rocannon's World (1964)
      2. Planet of Exile (1966)
      3. City of Illusions (1967)
      4. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
      5. The Dispossessed (1974)
      6. Stories:
         1. Winter’s King (1969)
         2. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (1971)
         3. The Day Before the Revolution (1974)
         4. Coming of Age in Karhide (1995)
      7. Appendix:
         1. Introduction to Rocannon’s World
         2. Introduction to Planet of Exile
         3. Introduction to City of Illusions
         4. Introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness
         5. A Response, by Ansible, from Tau Ceti
         6. Is Gender Necessary? Redux
         7. Winter’s King (1969 version)
   
   Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories II (2017)
   
   
   
   2. Vol. 2:
      1. The Word for World Is Forest (1976)
      2. Stories:
         1. The Shobies’ Story (1990)
         2. Dancing to Ganam (1993)
         3. Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994)
         4. Unchosen Love (1994)
         5. Mountain Ways (1996)
         6. The Matter of Seggri (1994)
         7. Solitude (1994)
      3. Story Suite: Five Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
         1. Betrayals (1994)
         2. Forgiveness Day (1994)
         3. A Man of the People (1995)
         4. A Woman's Liberation (1995)
         5. Old Music and the Slave Women (1996)
      4. The Telling (2000)
      5. Appendix:
         1. Introduction to The Word for World Is Forest
         2. On Not Reading Science Fiction
      • The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 1: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions; The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed; Stories. 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974. Ed. Brian Attebery. The Library of America, 296. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.
      • The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 2: The Word for World is Forest; Five Ways to Forgiveness; The Telling; Stories. 1977, 1995, 2000. Ed. Brian Attebery. The Library of America, 297. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.
5. Rocannon's World (1964)
   • Rocannon's World. 1964. A Star Book. London: W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd. 1980.
   • Included in: Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions. 1964, 1966, 1967. An Orb Book. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.
6. Planet of Exile (1966)
   • Planet of Exile / Thomas M. Disch. Mankind under the Leash. Ace Double. New York: Ace Books, Inc., 1966.
   • Included in: Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions. 1964, 1966, 1967. An Orb Book. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.
7. City of Illusions (1967)
   • City of Illusions. 1967. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1973.
   • Included in: Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions. 1964, 1966, 1967. An Orb Book. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.
8. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
   • The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.
   • The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969. Orbit. London: Little, Brown Book Group, 2006.
9. The Dispossessed (1974)
   • The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. 1974. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.
10. The Word for World Is Forest (1976)
    • The Word for World is Forest. 1977. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.
11. Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
    1. Betrayals (1994)
    2. Forgiveness Day (1994)
    3. A Man of the People (1995)
    4. A Woman's Liberation (1995)
    5. Old Music and the Slave Women (1996)
    • Four Ways to Forgiveness. 1995. HarperPrism. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
12. The Telling (2000)
    • The Telling. 2000. London: Gollancz, 2003.



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Books of Earthsea. Illustrated by Charles Vess (2018)


Earthsea
(1964-2018)



13. The Books of Earthsea. Illustrated by Charles Vess (2018) [E]
    1. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
    2. The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
    3. The Farthest Shore (1972)
    4. Tehanu (1990)
    5. Tales from Earthsea (2001)
       1. The Finder (2001)
       2. Darkrose and Diamond (1999)
       3. The Bones of the Earth (2001)
       4. On the High Marsh (2001)
       5. Dragonfly (1998)
    6. The Other Wind (2001)
    7. A Description of Earthsea (2001)
    8. The Word of Unbinding (1964)
    9. The Rule of Names (1964)
    10. The Daughter of Odren (2014)
    11. Firelight (2018)
    12. Earthsea Revisioned (1993)
    • The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition – A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu; Tales of Earthsea; The Other Wind. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990, 2001, 2001. Illustrated by Charles Vess. USA: Saga Press, 2018.
14. A Wizard of Earthsea. Illustrated by Ruth Robbins (1968)
    • A Wizard of Earthsea. 1968. Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore. 1979. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Quartet: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.
15. The Tombs of Atuan. Illustrated by Gail Garraty (1971)
    • The Tombs of Atuan. 1971. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore. 1979. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Quartet: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.
16. The Farthest Shore. Illustrated by Gail Garraty (1972)
    • The Farthest Shore. 1972. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore. 1979. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Quartet: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.
17. Tehanu. Illustrated by John Jude Palencar (1990)
    • Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea. London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.
    • Included in: The Earthsea Quartet: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.
18. Tales from Earthsea. Illustrated by Kelly Nelson (2001)
    1. The Finder (2001)
    2. Darkrose and Diamond (1999)
    3. The Bones of the Earth (2001)
    4. On the High Marsh (2001)
    5. Dragonfly (1998)
    6. A Description of Earthsea (2001)
    • Tales from Earthsea. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.
19. The Other Wind. Illustrated by Cliff Nielsen (2001)
    • The Other Wind. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (2019)


Always Coming Home
(1983-2019)



20. Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition. Ed. Brian Attebery. Library of America, 315 (2019) [A]
    1. Always Coming Home (1985)
       1. The Trouble with the Cotton People (Winter 1984)
       2. The Visionary (Winter 1984)
       3. Time in the Valley (Winter 1985)
    2. Pandora Revisits the Kesh and Comes Back with New Texts (2017):
       1. Dangerous People (1985)
       2. Some Kesh Meditations
       3. Blood Lodge Songs
       4. Kesh Syntax
    3. Other Writing Related to Always Coming Home:
       1. May’s Lion (1983)
       2. Navna: The River-running, by Intrumo of Sinshan
       3. World-Making
    4. Essays:
       1. A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be
       2. The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
       3. Text, Silence, Performance
       4. Legends for a New Land
       5. The Making of Always Coming Home
       6. Indian Uncles
    • Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition. 1985. Ed. Brian Attebery. The Library of America, 315. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2019.
21. Always Coming Home (1985)
    • Always Coming Home. Artist: Margaret Chodos. Composer: Todd Baron. Geomancer: George Hersh. 1985. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986.
    • Always Coming Home. Artist; Margaret Chodos. Composer: Todd Barton. Geomancer: George Hersh. Maps drawn by the Author. 1985. London: HarperCollins, 1993.
22. Way of the Water's Going: Images of the Northern California Coastal Range. Text from Always Coming Home with photographs by Ernest Waugh and Allan Nicholson [chapbook] (1989)



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: Annals of the Western Shore (2020)


Annals of the Western Shore
(2004-2020)



23. Annals of the Western Shore. Gifts; Voices; Powers. Ed. Brian Attebery. Library of America, 335 (2020)
    1. Gifts (2004)
    2. Voices (2006)
    3. Powers (2007)
    4. Talks and Interviews about the Novels:
       1. The Young Adult in the YA (2004)
       2. Some Assumptions about Fantasy (2004)
       3. Interview with Paola Castagno (2006)
       4. Interview with Brian Attebery (2007)
       5. Interview with Alexander Chee (2008)
    • Annals of the Western Shore. Gifts; Voices; Powers. Ed. Brian Attebery. 2004, 2006, 2007. The Library of America, 335. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2020.
24. Gifts. Annals of the Western Shore (2004)
    • Gifts. Annals of the Western Shore, 1. 2004. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2006.
25. Voices. Annals of the Western Shore (2006)
    • Voices. Annals of the Western Shore, 2. 2006. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2007.
26. Powers. Annals of the Western Shore (2007)
    • Powers. Annals of the Western Shore, 3. 2007. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2008.



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: Collected Poems (2023)


Poetry
(1959-2023)



27. Collected Poems. Ed. Harold Bloom. Library of America, 368 (2023)
    1. Wild Angels (1975)
    2. Hard Words (1981)
    3. Wild Oats and Fireweed (1988)
    4. No Boats (1993)
    5. Going Out with Peacocks (1994)
    6. Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts (1995)
    7. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (1997)
    8. Sixty Odd (1999)
    9. Incredible Good Fortune (2006)
    10. Poems from Out Here and Finding My Elegy (2010 & 2012)
    11. Late in the Day (2015)
    12. So Far So Good (2018)
    13. Uncollected Poems
    • Collected Poems. Ed. Harold Bloom. The Library of America, 368. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2023.
28. Wild Angels (1975)
    • Wild Angels. 1975. In The Capra Chapbook Anthology. Ed. Noel Young. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1979.
29. Walking in Cornwall [chapbook] (1976)
30. [with Theodora Kroeber] Tillai and Tylissos [chapbook] (1979)
31. Hard Words and Other Poems (1981)
32. [with Theodora Kroeber] In the Red Zone [chapbook] (1983)
33. Wild Oats and Fireweed: New Poems (1988)
34. [with Vonda McIntyre] A Winter Solstice Ritual [chapbook] (1991)
35. [with Vonda McIntyre] No Boats [chapbook] (1992)
36. Blue Moon over Thurman Street. Illustrated by Roger Dorband [chapbook] (1993)
37. Going out with Peacocks and Other Poems (1994)
38. [with Diana Bellessi] The Twins, The Dream: Two Voices/Las Gemelas, El Sueño: Dos Voces (1997)
39. [Trans.] Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching (1997)
    • Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. A Book about the Way & the Power of the Way. Trans. Ursula K. Le Guin, with J. P. Seaton. 1997. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1998.
40. Sixty Odd (1999)
41. [Trans.] Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral (2003)
42. [Trans.] Angélica Gorodischer. Kalpa Imperial (2003)
43. Incredible Good Fortune (2006)
44. Four Different Poems (2007)
45. Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country. Illustrated with photographs by Roger Dorband (2010)
46. Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems (2012)
47. [Trans., with Mariano Martín Rodríguez] Gheorghe Săsărman. Squaring the Circle: A Pseudotreatise of Urbogony (2013)
48. Late in the Day: Poems 2010–2014 (2015)
49. So Far So Good: Poems 2014–2018 (2018)



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: Five Novels (2024)


Novels
(1971-2024)



50. Five Novels: The Lathe of Heaven; The Eye of the Heron; The Beginning Place; Searoad; Lavinia. Ed. Brian Attebery. Library of America, 379 (2024)
    1. The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
    2. The Eye of the Heron (1978)
    3. The Beginning Place (1980)
    4. Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991)
       1. Foam Women, Rain Women (1991)
       2. The Ship Ahoy (1987)
       3. Hand, Cup, Shell (1989)
       4. Geezers (1991)
       5. In and Out (1989)
       6. Bill Weisler (1990)
       7. True Love (1991)
       8. Sleepwalkers (1991)
       9. Quoits (1991)
       10. Crosswords (1990)
       11. Texts (1990)
       12. Hernes (1991)
       13. Biographies (1991)
    5. Lavinia (2008)
    6. Related Essays:
       1. The Child and the Shadow
       2. Working on “The Lathe”
       3. The Fisherwoman’s Daughter
    • Five Novels: The Lathe of Heaven; The Eye of the Heron; The Beginning Place; Searoad; Lavinia. Ed. Brian Attebery. 1971, 1978, 1980, 1991, 2008. The Library of America, 379. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2024.
51. The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
    • The Lathe of Heaven. 1971. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1974.
    • The Lathe of Heaven. 1971. Gollancz SF. London: Victor Gollancz, 1979.
52. The Eye of the Heron (1978)
    • [with others]. The Eye of the Heron and Other Stories. Ed. Virginia Kidd. [aka ‘Millennial Women’, 1978]. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.
53. The Beginning Place [aka Threshold] (1980)
    • Threshold. As ‘The Beginning Place’. 1980. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1982.
54. Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991) [K]
    1. Foam Women, Rain Women (1991)
    2. The Ship Ahoy (1987)
    3. Hand, Cup, Shell (1989)
    4. Geezers (1991)
    5. In and Out (1989)
    6. Bill Weisler (1990)
    7. True Love (1991)
    8. Sleepwalkers (1991)
    9. Quoits (1991)
    10. Crosswords (1990)
    11. Texts (1990)
    12. Hernes (1991)
    • Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand. 1991. London: Victor Gollancz, 1992.
55. Lavinia (2008)
    • Lavinia. 2008. Mariner Books. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Wind's Twelve Quarters & The Compass Rose (2015)


Stories
(1961-2018)


Collections:


56. The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) [W]
    1. Semley's Necklace (1964)
    2. April in Paris (1962)
    3. The Masters (1963)
    4. Darkness Box (1963)
    5. The Word of Unbinding (1964)
    6. The Rule of Names (1964)
    7. Winter's King (1969)
    8. The Good Trip (1970)
    9. Nine Lives (1969)
    10. Things (1970)
    11. A Trip to the Head (1970)
    12. Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971)
    13. The Stars Below (1974)
    14. The Field of Vision (1973)
    15. Direction of the Road (1973)
    16. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973)
    17. The Day Before the Revolution (1974)
    • The Wind's Twelve Quarters. 1975. 2 Vols. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.
    • The Wind's Twelve Quarters. 1975. VGSF. London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1989.
57. The Water is Wide [chapbook] (1976)
58. The Compass Rose (1982) [R]
    Nadir
    1. 'The Author of the Acacia Seeds' and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics (1974)
    2. The New Atlantis (1975)
    3. Schrödinger's Cat (1974)
    North
    4. Two Delays on the Northern Line (1979)
    5. SQ (1978)
    6. Small Change (1981)
    East
    7. The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb (1978)
    8. The Diary of the Rose (1976)
    9. The White Donkey (1980)
    10. The Phoenix (1982)
    Zenith
    11. Intracom (1974)
    12. The Eye Altering (1974)
    13. Mazes (1975)
    14. The Pathways of Desire (1979)
    West
    15. Gwilan's Harp (1977)
    16. Malheur County (1979)
    17. The Water Is Wide (1976)
    South
    18. The Wife's Story (1982)
    19. Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time (1979)
    20. Sur (1982)
    • The Compass Rose: Short Stories. 1982. London: Victor Gollancz, 1983.
    • The Compass Rose. 1982. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1984.
59. Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987) [G]
    Come Into Animal Presences, by Denise Levertov (1961)
    I. "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight"
    1. Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight (1987)
    II. Three Rock Poems
    2. The Basalt (1982)
    3. Flints (1987)
    4. Mt. St. Helens/Omphalos (1975)
    III. "The Wife's Story" and "Mazes"
    5. Mazes (1975)
    6. The Wife's Story (1982)
    IV. Five Vegetable Poems
    7. Torrey Pines Reserve (1981)
    8. Lewis and Clark and After (1987)
    9. West Texas (1987)
    10. Xmas Over (1984)
    11. The Crown of Laurel
    V. "The Direction of the Road" and "Vaster Than Empires"
    12. The Direction of the Road (1973)
    13. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (1971)
    VI. Seven Bird and Beast Poems
    14. What is Going on in the Oaks (1987)
    15. For Ted (1975)
    16. Found Poem (1987)
    17. Totem (1981)
    18. Winter Downs (1981)
    19. The Man Eater (1987)
    20. Sleeping Out (1987)
    VII. "The White Donkey" and "Horse Camp"
    21. The White Donkey (1980)
    22. Horse Camp (1986)
    VIII. Four Cat Poems
    23. Tabby Lorenzo (1987)
    24. Black Leonard in Negative Space (1987)
    25. A Conversation With a Silence (1987)
    26. For Leonard, Darko, and Burton Watson (1987)
    IX. "Schrödinger's Cat" and "The Author of the Acacia Seeds"
    27. Schrödinger's Cat (1974)
    28. The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of Therolinguistics (1974)
    X."May's Lion"
    29. May's Lion (1983)
    XI. Rilke's "Eighth Duino Elegy" and "She Unnames Them"
    30. The Eighth Elegy (Rainer Maria Rilke: Duino Elegies, trans. Ursula K. Le Guin)
    31. She Unnames Them (1985)
    • Buffalo Gals, and Other Animal Presences. 1987. A Plume book. New York: New American Library, 1988.
60. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994) [F]
    1. The First Contact with the Gorgonids (1992)
    2. Newton's Sleep (1991)
    3. The Ascent of the North Face (1983)
    4. The Rock That Changed Things (1992)
    5. The Kerastion (1990)
    6. The Shobies' Story (1990)
    7. Dancing to Ganam (1993)
    8. Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994)
    • A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. 1994. London: Vista, 1997.
61. Findings [chapbook] (1992)
62. Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996) [U]
    1. Half Past Four (1987)
    2. The Professor's Houses (1982)
    3. Ruby on the 67 (1996)
    4. Limberlost (1989)
    5. The Creatures on My Mind (1990)
    6. Standing Ground (1992)
    7. The Spoons in the Basement (1982)
    8. Sunday in Summer in Seatown (1995)
    9. In the Drought (1993)
    10. Ether, Or (1995)
    11. Unlocking the Air (1990)
    12. A Child Bride (1988)
    13. Climbing to the Moon (1992)
    14. Daddy's Big Girl (1987)
    15. Findings (1992)
    16. Olders (1995)
    17. The Wise Woman (1995)
    18. The Poacher (1993)
    • Unlocking the Air and Other Stories. 1996. HarperPerennial. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
63. The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (2002) [B]
    1. Coming of Age in Karhide (1995)
    2. The Matter of Seggri (1994)
    3. Unchosen Love (1994)
    4. Mountain Ways (1996)
    5. Solitude (1994)
    6. Old Music and the Slave Women (1996)
    7. The Birthday of the World (2000)
    8. Paradises Lost (2002)
    • The Birthday of the World and Other Stories. 2002. London: Gollancz, 2003.
64. Changing Planes (2002) [C]
    1. Sita Dulip's Method (2002)
    2. Porridge on Islac (2002)
    3. The Silence of the Asonu (1998)
    4. Feeling at Home with the Hennebet (2002)
    5. The Ire of the Veksi (2002)
    6. Seasons of the Ansarac (2002)
    7. Social Dreaming of the Frin (2002)
    8. The Royals of Hegn (2000)
    9. Woeful Tales from Mahigul (2002)
       1. Dawodow the Innumerable
       2. The Cleansing of Obtry
       3. The Black Dog
       4. The War for the Alon
    10. Great Joy (2002)
    11. Wake Island (2002)
    12. The Nna Mmoy Language (2002)
    13. The Building (2002)
    14. The Fliers of Gy (2000)
    15. The Island of the Immortals (1998)
    16. Confusions of Uñi (2002)
    • Changing Planes: Stories. Illustrated by Eric Beddows. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2003.
65. The Wild Girls (2011)
    1. The Wild Girls (2002)
    2. Staying Awake While We Read
    3. Poems
    4. The Conversation of the Modest
    5. A Lovely Art: Interview with Terry Bisson
    6. Bibliography
66. The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Stories of Ursula Le Guin (2012) [T]
    Vol. 1: What on Earth
    1. Brothers and Sisters (1976)
    2. A Week in the Country (1976)
    3. Unlocking the Air (1990)
    4. Imaginary Countries (1973)
    5. The Diary of the Rose (1976)
    6. The Direction of the Road (1973)
    7. The White Donkey (1980)
    8. Gwilan’s Harp (1977)
    9. May’s Lion (1983)
    10. Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight (1987)
    11. Horse Camp (1986)
    12. The Water is Wide (1976)
    13. The Lost Children (1996)
    14. Texts (1990)
    15. Sleepwalkers (1991)
    16. Hand, Cup, Shell (1989)
    17. Ether, Or (1995)
    18. Half Past Four (1987)
    Vol. 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands
    19. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973)
    20. Semley’s Necklace (1964)
    21. Nine Lives (1969)
    22. Mazes (1975)
    23. The First Contact with the Gorgonids (1991)
    24. The Shobies’ Story (1990)
    25. Betrayals (1994)
    26. The Matter of Seggri (1994)
    27. Solitude (1994)
    28. The Wild Girls (2002)
    29. The Fliers of Gy (2000)
    30. The Silence of the Asonu (1998)
    31. The Ascent of the North Face (1983)
    32. The Author of the Acacia Seeds (1974)
    33. The Wife’s Story (1982)
    34. The Rule of Names (1964)
    35. Small Change (1981)
    36. The Poacher (1993)
    37. Sur (1982)
    38. She Unnames Them (1985)
    39. Jar of Water (2014)
    • The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 1: Where on Earth. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2014.
    • The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2015.
67. The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas (2016) [N]
    1. Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971)
    2. Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight (1987)
    3. Hernes (1991)
    4. The Matter of Seggri (1994)
    5. Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994)
    6. Forgiveness Day (1994)
    7. A Man of the People (1995)
    8. A Woman's Liberation (1995)
    9. Old Music and the Slave Women (1996)
    10. The Finder (2001)
    11. On the High Marsh (2001)
    12. Dragonfly (1998)
    13. Paradises Lost (2002)
    • The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas. Saga Press. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2016.



•


Stories:

Key:

A = Always Coming Home: Expanded Edition (2019)
B = The Birthday of the World (2002)
C = Changing Planes (2002)
E = The Books of Earthsea (2018)
F = A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994)
G = Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987)
H = Hainish Novels & Stories (2017)
N = The Found and the Lost: Collected Novellas (2016)
K = Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991)
O = The Complete Orsinia (2016)
R = The Compass Rose (1982)
T = The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories (2012)
U = Unlocking the Air (1996)
W = The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975)




1. An die Musik (1961) [O]
2. April in Paris (September 1962) [W]
3. The Masters (February 1963) [W]
4. Darkness Box (November 1963) [W]
5. The Word of Unbinding (January 1964) [W] [E]
6. The Rule of Names (April 1964) [W] [T] [E]
7. Selection (August 1964)
8. Semley's Necklace [aka 'The Dowry of Angyar'] (September 1964) [W] [T] [H]
9. Nine Lives (November 1969) [W] [T]
10. Winter's King (1969) [W] [H]
11. A Trip to the Head (1970) [W]
12. Things (1970) [W]
13. The Good Trip (August 1970) [W]
14. Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971) [W] [G] [N] [H]
15. The Field of Vision (October 1973) [W]
16. Imaginary Countries (Winter 1973) [T] [O]
17. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973) [W] [T]
18. The Direction of the Road (1973) [W] [G] [T]
19. The Day Before the Revolution (August 1974) [W] [H]
20. The Stars Below (1974) [W]
21. The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics (1974) [R] [G] [T]
22. Schrödinger's Cat (1974) [R] [G]
23. Intracom (1974) [R]
24. The Eye Altering (1974) [R]
25. Mazes (1975) [R] [G] [T]
26. The New Atlantis (1975) [R]
27. A Week in the Country (Spring 1976) [T] [O]
28. Brothers and Sisters (Summer 1976) [T] [O]
29. The Fountains (1976) [O]
30. The Barrow (1976) [O]
31. Ile Forest (1976) [O]
32. Conversations At Night (1976) [O]
33. The Road East (1976) [O]
34. The House (1976) [O]
35. The Lady of Moge (1976) [O]
36. The Diary of the Rose (1976) [R] [T]
37. The Water is Wide (1976) [R] [T]
38. Gwilan's Harp (1977) [R] [T]
39. Ghost Story (1977)
40. Courtroom Scene (1977)
41. SQ (1978) [R]
42. The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb (Spring 1978) [R]
43. The Pathways of Desire (1979) [R]
44. Malheur County (Winter 1979) [R]
45. Some Approaches to the Problem of Shortage of Time [aka 'Where Does Time Go?'] (October 1979) [R]
46. Two Delays on the Northern Line (November 1979) [R] [O]
47. The White Donkey (1980) [R] [G] [T]
48. Small Change (1981) [R] [T]
49. Sur (February 1982) [R] [T]
50. The Spoons in the Basement (August 1982) [U]
51. The Professor's Houses (November 1982) [U]
52. The Phoenix (1982) [R]
53. The Wife's Story (1982) [R] [G] [T]
54. May's Lion (1983) [G] [T] [A]
55. The Ascent of the North Face (1983) [F] [T]
56. The Trouble with the Cotton People (Winter 1984) [A]
57. The Visionary (Winter 1984) [A]
58. She Unnames Them (January 1985) [G] [T]
59. Time in the Valley (Winter 1985) [A]
60. Dangerous People (1985) [A]
61. Horse Camp (August 1986) [G] [T]
62. Daddy's Big Girl (January 1987) [U]
63. Half Past Four (September 1987) [U] [T]
64. The Ship Ahoy (November 1987) [K]
65. Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight (1987) [G] [T] [N]
66. Legends for a New Land (1988)
67. A Child Bride [aka 'Kore 87'] (June 1988) [U]
68. Hand, Cup, Shell (Autumn 1989) [K] [T]
69. In and Out (January 1989) [K]
70. Limberlost (1989) [U]
71. Texts (May 1990) [K] [T]
72. Crosswords (July 1990) [K]
73. Bill Weisler (Autumn 1990) [K]
74. The Creatures on My Mind (1990) [U]
75. The Kerastion (1990) [F]
76. The Shobies' Story (1990) [F] [T] [H]
77. Unlocking the Air (1990) [U] [T] [O]
78. Foam Women, Rain Women (1991) [K]
79. Geezers (Winter 1991) [K]
80. True Love (Spring 1991) [K]
81. Sleepwalkers (1991) [K] [T]
82. Quoits (Summer 1991) [K]
83. Hernes (1991) [K] [N]
84. Newton's Sleep (1991) [F]
85. Sleepwalkers (1991)
86. First Contact with the Gorgonids (January 1992) [F] [T]
87. The Rock That Changed Things (September 1992) [F]
88. Climbing to the Moon (1992) [U]
89. Findings (1992) [U]
90. Standing Ground (1992) [U]
91. Dancing to Ganam (September 1993) [F] [H]
92. The Poacher (1993) [U] [T]
93. In the Drought (1993) [U]
94. The Matter of Seggri (Spring 1994) [B] [T] [N] [H]
95. Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inner Sea (August 1994) [F] [N] [H]
96. Unchosen Love (Fall 1994) [B] [H]
97. Solitude (December 1994) [B] [T] [H]
98. Betrayals (1994) [T] [H]
99. Forgiveness Day (1994) [N] [H]
100. Ether, Or (November 1995) [U] [T]
101. Olders (December 1995) [U]
102. A Man of the People (1995) [N] [H]
103. A Woman's Liberation (1995) [N] [H]
104. Coming of Age in Karhide (1995) [B] [H]
105. Sunday in Summer in Seatown (1995) [U]
106. The Wise Woman (1995) [U]
107. The Lost Children (January 1996) [T]
108. Mountain Ways (August 1996) [B] [H]
109. Old Music and the Slave Women (August 1996) [B] [N] [H]
110. Ruby on the 67 (1996) [U]
111. The Island of the Immortals (Fall 1998) [C]
112. Dragonfly (1998) [N] [E]
113. The Silence of the Asonu (1998) [C] [T]
114. Darkrose and Diamond (October–November 1999) [E]
115. The Royals of Hegn (February 2000) [C]
116. The Birthday of the World (January 2000) [B]
117. The Flyers of Gy (November 2000) [C] [T]
118. The Bones of the Earth (2001) [E]
119. The Building (2001)
120. The Finder (2001) [N] [E]
121. On the High Marsh (2001) [N] [E]
122. The Wild Girls (March 2002) [T]
123. Sita Dulip's Method (2002) [C]
124. Porridge on Islac (2002) [C]
125. Feeling at Home with the Hennebet (2002) [C]
126. The Ire of the Veksi (2002) [C]
127. Seasons of the Ansarac (2002) [C]
128. Social Dreaming of the Frin (November 2002) [C]
129. Woeful Tales from Mahigul (2002) [C]
     1. Dawodow the Innumerable
     2. The Cleansing of Obtry
     3. The Black Dog
     4. The War for the Alon
130. Great Joy (2002) [C]
131. Wake Island (2002) [C]
132. The Nna Mmoy Language (2002) [C]
133. The Building (2002) [C]
134. Confusions of Uñi (2002) [C]
135. Paradises Lost (2002) [B] [N]
136. The Seasons of the Ansarac (February 2003)
137. LADeDeDa (March 2009)
138. Elementals (2013)
139. The Daughter of Odren (September 2014) [E]
140. Jar of Water [aka 'The Jar of Water'] (Winter 2014) [T]
141. Firelight (Summer 2018) [E]
142. Pity and Shame (Summer 2018)



•

Ursula K. Le Guin: Dreams Must Explain Themselves (2018)


Miscellaneous


Non-fiction:


68. From Elfland to Poughkeepsie (1973)
69. Dreams Must Explain Themselves (1975)
    1. The Rule of Names (1964)
70. The Language of the Night. Ed. Susan Wood (1979)
    • The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction. Ed. Susan Wood. 1979. Rev ed. London: The Women’s Press, 1989.
71. The Art of Bunditsu [chapbook] (1982)
72. Dancing at the Edge of the World. Ed. Susan Wood (1989)
    • Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. London: Victor Gollancz, 1989.
73. Myth and Archetype in Science Fiction [chapbook] (1991)
74. Talking About Writing [chapbook] (1992)
75. Earthsea Revisioned [chapbook] (1993)
76. Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew (1998)
    • Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew. Portland, Oregon: The Eighth Mountain Press, 1998.
77. The Wave in the Mind (2004)
    • The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2004.
78. Cheek by Jowl (2009)
    • Cheek by Jowl: Talks & Essays on How & Why Fantasy Matters. Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2009.
79. Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story (2015)
80. Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016 (2016)
    • Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a Writer’s Week. Northampton, Mass: Small Beer Press, 2016.
81. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (2017)
82. Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Other Essays 1972–2004 (2018)
    • Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., 2018.
83. The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction [chapbook] (2019)

Screenplay:


84. King Dog: A Screenplay (1985)

Children's Books:


85. Very Far Away from Anywhere Else [aka A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else] (1976)
    • A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else. [aka ‘Very Far Away from Anywhere Else’]. 1976. Peacock Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
86. Leese Webster. Illustrated by James Brunsman (1979)
87. The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune. Illustrated by Alicia Austin (1982)
88. Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip Around the World. Illustrated by Alicia Austin (1983)
89. A Visit from Dr. Katz. Illustrated by Ann Barrow (1988)
90. Fire and Stone. Illustrated by Laura Marshall (1988)
91. Catwings. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1988)
92. Catwings Return. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1989)
93. Fish Soup. Illustrated by Patrick Wynne (1992)
94. A Ride on the Red Mare's Back. Illustrated by Julie Downing (1992)
95. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1994)
96. Jane On Her Own (1999)
97. Tom Mouse. Illustrated by Julie Downing (2002)
98. Cat Dreams. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (2009)

Edited:


99. Nebula Award Stories 11 (1976)
100. [with Virginia Kidd] Edges (1980)
101. [with Virginia Kidd] Interfaces (1980)
102. [with Brian Attebery] The Norton Book of Science Fiction (1993)
103. Selected Stories of H. G. Wells (2004)

Interviews:


104. [with David Naimon] Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing (2018)
105. Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview. Ed. David Streitfeld (2018)

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Catwings Complete Collection (1988-99)

•

• category - Fantasy Literature: Authors

•

Acquisitions (66): Ishi in Three Centuries

Karl & Clifton Kroeber: Ishi in Three Centuries (2003)

•

Ishi (c.1861-1916)


Ishi in Three Centuries (2003)
[Jason Books, Auckland CBD - 6/11/2020]:

Karl & Clifton Kroeber, ed. Ishi in Three Centuries. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

James Clifford: Returns (2013)


The Enigma of Ishi

A more common "long-view" of history you hear when talking to Natives in rural Alaska is that the coming of the whites and all their technology was something long foretold by shamans ... Televisions and airplanes in particular were long foretold. This summer in Quinhagak I heard a new twist on this in that the little people ... used to appear to their ancestors wearing 20th century clothing and even sitting on tiny versions of 4-wheelers when confronting their 19th century ancestors, because little people have the ability to travel back and forth through time. But if prophesies exist, they don't seem to address what the end-game will be, or if this slow-motion train wreck of contact will continue forever. Or maybe people are just too polite to bring that up.

- Archaeologist Richard ('Rick') Knecht, quoted in Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century, by James Clifford (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2013): 318.

One of the guests in our writing cottage, anthropologist and indigenous rights activist Serena Cosgrove, was kind enough to send me a copy of James Clifford's book Returns, which includes what Clifford describes as a 'non-fiction novella' about Ishi, the so-called 'last wild Indian in America'. Serena and I had had some interesting conversations on the subject.

Theodora Kroeber: Ishi in Two Worlds (1961)

I used Theodora Kroeber's classic biography of Ishi as one of the texts in my Massey Travel Writing course, not so much because it's a typical piece of travel writing (it isn't), but because of a particular notion it embodies:

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book is its attempt to recreate the stone-age California which co-existed with the modern American state until (at least) the early twentieth century. Ishi was (so far as is known) the last Native American to live in complete ignorance of and isolation from the “civilised world” – but the extraordinary thing is that he and his tribe managed to stay under the radar for so long. What did the world look like through their eyes? Kroeber’s anthropologist husband tried to find out the answer, whilst simultaneously attempting to watch over and mediate Ishi’s integration into his new world.

Whether he succeeded or not is a very controversial subject – as is his widow’s rather hagiographic account of his work – but it isn’t hard to see how this notion of seeing one’s own world through other people’s eyes is an attractive one. How does it feel to live on the North Shore of Auckland when you don’t speak any English, for instance? Is it easy or hard? Does it feel confined or free? We can speculate, or (better still) try asking those who actually know. It’s travel literature, then, only in the sense that it attempts to record a world through the looking-glass – the same place you already live in, only seen from a quite different perspective.

Theodora Kroeber: Ishi, Last of His Tribe (1964)

I still like that idea of a stone age and modern era California co-existing at the same time - even in the same place. Whether or not it's accurate is (again) something which has been questioned since, but in the context of the course that was less important than the usefulness of this trope for contemporary travel writers trying to find a way in to the many layers of habitation in their own home environment - let alone the ones that they encounter while travelling abroad.

Ishi and Kroeber (1911)

Theodora Kroeber's husband, Alfred L. Kroeber (1876-1960), remains a very well known and influential American ethnologist. It was he who was largely responsible for Ishi's being housed as a kind of living exhibit in a Museum on the University of California campus at Parnassus Heights, San Francisco from 1911 until his death in 1916.

Alfred L. Kroeber: Handbook of the Indians of California (1925)

That was only one of his many claims to fame, however. he wrote an immense number of works on Native American culture and folklore, such as Indian Myths of South Central California (1907) or the posthumously published Yurok Myths (1976) - not to mention the one pictured above, his Handbook of the Indians of California.

Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (1985)

And that too, unfortunately, forms part of the problem. A while ago, in a post on his and Theodora's daughter, SF and Fantasy writer Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, I mentioned the obvious influence of her father's work on her most ambitious single work, the Utopian novel Always Coming Home (1985). Again, I quote:

Interestingly enough, I didn't share the adverse reaction to Always Coming Home when it first came out - after, that is, I'd learned that it had to be read straight through: songs, folklore, ethnologies, etymologies and all, if one was to have any hope of understanding the narrative all those things frame. Do they exist for the story, or does the story exist for them? It's an interesting question, but one - by its very nature - which remains unanswerable.

... Always Coming Home, for those of you who haven't read it, is a strange combination of a fantasy novel set in the near (or far) future, and an ethnography of a people called the Kesh, inhabitants of what is now Northern California. It includes accounts of their religious rituals, castes and guilds, stories and poems, their diet, and virtually the whole of their life-style from birth to death. It’s a hugely ambitious text, involving the creation of a whole imaginary future people, but – of course – also aspires to be a readable story.

It’s always seemed obvious to me that it was, at least in part, inspired by her father's work ... Her mother's influence is just as strong, though: perhaps a unique case of a novelist daughter influenced by her linguist and anthropologist father and her biographer mother - who followed up her first, more scholarly book Ishi in Two Worlds with a more popular, lightly fictionalized version, Ishi: Last of His Tribe - in creating a work which can really only be described as ethno-speculative-fiction.

Much though I continue to admire the writings of all three of these Kroebers, it's no longer possible to elide over the figure of Ishi himself with such ease. It was presumably in recognition of this fact that Ursula's literary critic brother Karl (1926-2009) and historian half-brother Clifton (1921-2019) edited that series of essays, Ishi in Three Centuries (2003), pictured at the head of this post.

Putting it bluntly, was Ishi (the word for 'man' in the Yana language), really 'the last of his tribe'? Was he materially benefitted by his association with Alfred Kroeber and his fellow anthropologists? And - above all - does he continue to be treated more as a symbolic object for sentimental reflections than a living, breathing human being?

If you're curious about any of these subjects, and the complex bibliography Ishi has given rise to, you should probably start off with James Clifford's essay on the subject, before moving on to the Theodora Kroeber biography and her sons' collection of essays.

In the other sections of his book Returns, subtitled Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century, Clifford puts into vivid perspective the problem of native tribes and people who have been declared officially 'extinct' by anthropological surveys such as the one recorded in Alfred Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of California.

The people of that place may refuse to acknowledge the 'extinction' of their local language and culture, and - as Clifford illustrates with multiple examples - whose job, precisely, is it to contradict them? Government officials? Professors? Landowners? In the words of the old song, they're dead but they won't lie down.

Clifford mentions in passing that 'rather elaborate invocations of genealogy and place now routinely introduce indigenous events in Canada, the United States, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Australia.'

The approach suspends normative ideas of cultural wholeness or organic speech communities, weighing instead the importance of selectively rearticulated cultural and linguistic forms, performances adapted to changing interactive situations. [278]

Quite so. What he doesn't mention, though, is the fact that it is not only indigenous events which are now introduced by 'elaborate invocations of genealogy and place' in Aotearoa/New Zealand, at any rate. Virtually any ceremonial occasion in our aspirationally bicultural and definitely post-colonial nation can now be prefaced by a Māori pepeha, or statement of identity.

Tina Makereti: The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke (2018)

As Tina Makereti points out in her recent novel The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, set in Victorian London, whose eponymous protagonist is the "orphaned son of a chief; ardent student of English; wide-eyed survivor":

All the world’s a stage, especially when you’re a living exhibit.

The museum exhibits have got out and are walking around. The indigenous peoples of the world are back with a vengeance, and 'Ishi' is no longer the comforting ghost we designed him to be.

Ursula Le Guin: Always Coming Home: Author's Expanded Edition (2019)

•

Theodora Kroeber (1970)

Theodora Kracaw Kroeber Quinn
(1897-1979)

1. Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.


2. Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi, Last of His Tribe. Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Oakland, California: Parnassus Press / Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964.


3. Kroeber, Theodora. Alfred Kroeber: A Personal Configuration. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970.

Secondary:


4. Kroeber, Karl, & Clifton Kroeber. Ishi in Three Centuries. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.


5. Clifford, James. Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2013.

•

• category - American Prose: Authors

•

Appendix:

This is the abstract for a panel at the 16th International Conference on the Short Story in English, planned to take place in Calabria in June 2020, but unfortunately cancelled by the pandemic:

Anthropology and the Short Story:
Delineating the Tribes

Who do we write for, and who do we write about? Most fiction writers develop over time a sense of the community they write about, and the – generally overlapping – audience they write for. When it comes to delineating these communities, however, we believe that writers have a great deal to learn from anthropologists. Certainly this emphasis would match the conference's themes of 'migration' and 'diversity.’

In his 2013 book Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century, Anthropologist James Clifford mentions that 'rather elaborate invocations of genealogy and place now routinely introduce indigenous events in Canada, the United States, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Australia.' He says of this:

The approach suspends normative ideas of cultural wholeness or organic speech communities, weighing instead the importance of selectively rearticulated cultural and linguistic forms, performances adapted to changing interactive situations. [278]

I would take issue with one detail. It is not only indigenous events which are now prefaced by 'elaborate invocations of genealogy and place' in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Virtually any ceremonial occasion in our aspirationally bicultural and definitely post-colonial nation is now introduced by a Māori pepeha, or statement of identity.

As New Zealand writers, we have found it increasingly necessary to consider such questions of tribe or community – those we speak for – and audience – those we speak to – in our creative practice. James Clifford has given us a context for talking about new, less exclusive and 'pure' conceptions of indigeneity.

None of us is of Māori descent, but when welcomed onto a marae in our home country, we become tangata whenua, people of the land of that place. It can be harder to find equivalent points of entry to our own immigrant communities, which is why we hope that the situations created and delineated in our fiction might perform a similar role instead.

Proposed panellists:

[Convenor]: Dr Jack Ross is a New Zealand poet and fiction-writer. He completed a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at the University of Edinburgh in 1990, and works as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. His latest book Ghost Stories appeared in 2019 from Lasavia Publishing. His other publications include five full-length poetry collections, four novels, and three volumes of short fiction.

Dr Bronwyn Lloyd completed a PhD in English and Art History at the University of Auckland in 2010. Her first collection of short stories, The Second Location, was published by Titus Books in 2011. She has recently completed a second short story collection, A Slow Alphabet, and a novel, Inanimals United. Bronwyn works as a freelance art writer and curator.

Dr Tracey Slaughter has a PhD in English from the University of Auckland. She is the author of the short story collection deleted scenes for lovers (2016) and the poetry collection Conventional Weapons (2019). Her first collection of poems and short stories, her body rises, was published by Random House in 2005, and her novella The Longest Drink in Town by Pania Press in 2015. Her short fiction has received numerous awards, including the international Bridport Prize 2014, a 2007 NZ Book Month Award, and BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards in 2004 and 2001. She teaches Creative Writing at Waikato University.

Michael Steven’s poems, essays and short fiction have appeared in Brief, IKA, Landfall, Phantom Billstickers Café Reader and Poetry New Zealand Yearbook. His first full-length poetry collection Walking to Jutland Street was longlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

[9/10/19]

•