Ursula K. Le Guin, Master of Speculative Fiction, Is Dead at 88

Ursula K. Le Guin, the acclaimed and beloved fantasy fiction author of the Earthsea series, among many other books, died on Monday, The New York Times reported. She was 88 years old. Le Guin helped bring a literary sensibility and feminist consciousness to science fiction and fantasy writing, or, speculative fiction.

Born in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929, Le Guin attended both Radcliffe College and Columbia University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris. She met her husband, Charles Le Guin, who is still living, while she was there. She wrote her well-loved Earthsea series, popular among young adult readers and adults alike, in the 1970s, while living in Portland, Oregon, with her family, where she remained until her death. Le Guin’s son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, did not reveal the cause of death, but, according to The New York Times, said she had “been in poor health for several months.”

Le Guin was the author of more than 20 novels, more than a dozen books of poetry, multiple volumes of short stories, seven collections of essays, 13 children’s books, and five works of translation. She was known for bucking stereotypes of familiar science fiction—realms of interplanetary conflict, witchcraft, and space travel—especially in The Left Hand of Darkness, in which traditional gender roles are upended. Le Guin considered herself a feminist, and received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 2014 National Book Awards, presented by author Neil Gaiman.

At that ceremony, Le Guin delivered a powerful address about the need for Americans to value literature as more than a profit-making enterprise, on which she commented later for Vogue: “Fiction has been highly commodified,” she said. “And that’s fine within limits . . . But there should remain a large and noble place for the writing that is not written to sell but to be itself.”