Author tribute: Ursula LeGuin

In tribute to Ursula LeGuin, author of the original Earthsea trilogy

Wizard of Earthsea, Parnassus Books, 1968 

Tombs of Atuan, Atheneum Books, 1971

Farthest Shore, Atheneum Books, 1972

As a prolific novel and short-story writer living in the Pacific Northwest, Ursula Le Guin had a wide and deep knowledge of myth, language, and history. In honor of her death this past week, we pay tribute to her writing of the Earthsea trilogy. I fondly recall reading these spellbinding, coming-of-age stories with memorable characters with my own young son.

The first trilogy book, A Wizard of Earthsea, centers on a journey inward, a journey towards self-realization. A young wizard, Ged, attending an all-male school for wizards finds his pride leads him to folly, and the loosing of a terrible evil on the world and hence, adventures across the sea to undo the wrong he wrought. Young readers can intuitively recognize the Taoist conception of “balance" underlying the Earthsea stories, i.e., the use of magic is dangerous and can destabilize the natural order.

The Tombs of Atuan, the second book, is about a young woman's coming of age in an all-female temple complex, where much of it happens underground. As a nominal overlord, she discovers an intruder in the forbidden labyrinth that is her domain, and chooses to turn her back on everything familiar in exchange for an uncertain future.

In the final book, The Farthest Shore, the wizard Ged joins a young prince questing to find the source of evil that is leaching the wizardry out of the world, and the joy.

In remembrance of this exceptional writer, consider sharing award-winning Le Guin’s renowned Earthsea trilogy from our library with a young reader in your life, or with your fantasy self.

-- submitted by Mona Bronson

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