Ursula K Le Guin
Nikki Redden
Honors British Literature
Mrs. Svoboda
9 April 2014
Biography of Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929. Her mother, Theodora Krackaw Kroeber, had an advanced degree in psychology and was a well-known writer for her narratives: Ishi in Two Worlds in 1961 and Ishi, Last of His Tribe in 1964. Le Guin’s Father, Alfred Kroeber, was a distinguished anthropologist for his work with tribes of Native Americans indigenous to California (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Her father also taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Le Guin and her three older brothers Karl, Theodore, and Clifford were encouraged to read at a young age (Boon and Heller). During the academic year, the Kroebers lived at their home in Berkeley. When summer arrived, the family would move to their estate, Kishamish, in Napa Valley. There, the family enjoyed the company of many intellectuals: writers, scholars, graduate students, and American Indians. Also, Le Guin and her brother frequently explored their forty-acre summer home. This exploration would later influence many of her novels that are based on journeys by foot (Boon and Heller). Growing up in an environment that fostered intellectual pursuit and having unlimited access to books, sparked Le Guin’s creativity. Due to her parents’ dedication to other cultures, her fiction shows many different worldviews other than the usual Euro-American competitive materialism. Her multiple worldviews allow Le Guin’s writing to move smoothly across barriers of culture, language, gender, and ideology while exploring both dimensions of social and psychological identity (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Le Guin discovered science fiction while reading the works of Lord Dunsany, and remarkably, she produced her first fantasy when she was only nine years old. Thereafter, a magazine rejected her first science fiction story, written when she was eleven (Carmean, Williams,
Honors British Literature
Mrs. Svoboda
9 April 2014
Biography of Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929. Her mother, Theodora Krackaw Kroeber, had an advanced degree in psychology and was a well-known writer for her narratives: Ishi in Two Worlds in 1961 and Ishi, Last of His Tribe in 1964. Le Guin’s Father, Alfred Kroeber, was a distinguished anthropologist for his work with tribes of Native Americans indigenous to California (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Her father also taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Le Guin and her three older brothers Karl, Theodore, and Clifford were encouraged to read at a young age (Boon and Heller). During the academic year, the Kroebers lived at their home in Berkeley. When summer arrived, the family would move to their estate, Kishamish, in Napa Valley. There, the family enjoyed the company of many intellectuals: writers, scholars, graduate students, and American Indians. Also, Le Guin and her brother frequently explored their forty-acre summer home. This exploration would later influence many of her novels that are based on journeys by foot (Boon and Heller). Growing up in an environment that fostered intellectual pursuit and having unlimited access to books, sparked Le Guin’s creativity. Due to her parents’ dedication to other cultures, her fiction shows many different worldviews other than the usual Euro-American competitive materialism. Her multiple worldviews allow Le Guin’s writing to move smoothly across barriers of culture, language, gender, and ideology while exploring both dimensions of social and psychological identity (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Le Guin discovered science fiction while reading the works of Lord Dunsany, and remarkably, she produced her first fantasy when she was only nine years old. Thereafter, a magazine rejected her first science fiction story, written when she was eleven (Carmean, Williams,