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.
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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.
This is exciting news!
When I read it, I freely admit I went down the following rabbit-hole: by the time the above plan is fully realized, Le Guin’s contribution to the Library of America will number 8 whole volumes. I’m familiar with LOA’s catalogue but I wouldn’t say I’m intimately familiar; nevertheless, as far as I could determine from browsing their website, 8 volumes will place her among LOA’s heaviest hitters! It looks like Henry James, with a whopping 16 numbered* volumes, is in a probably permanent lead (unless LOA decides to induct Joyce Carol Oates?); the next most prolific I think is Philip Roth (10 numbered volumes). At 8 volumes, Le Guin will be tied for 3rd place (I believe) with none other than Mark Twain! And if (when?) LOA finally turns their attention to Earthsea, and/or collects her essays, she could wind up tied for 2nd, or even in 2nd sans tie. ;) Not too bad for a writer of lowly sci-fi, hehe.
* i.e. counting only the omnibus hardback volumes in the main LOA series, meaning I’m passing over various paperback and e-book reprints of individual titles.
I’m very excited about the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy getting more attention. I only read it for the first time myself a few months ago — somehow I’d missed it when the books originally came out, and somehow I never saw any reviews or chat about it. I think it’s as good as anything LeGuin ever wrote!
I really hope they’ll also do a volume collecting her essays. Her insights are extremely valuable for aspiring writers, established writers, readers, and scholars (like me), and I absolutely hate the fact that collections like Language of the Night have been out of print for decades.
But still, it’s super exciting to see this happening! Searoads is coming back, her short fiction, etc. Such exciting stuff!
Wonderful news! Are LOA editions on acid-free paper? S9me of my old paperbacks are in pretty bad shape.
Msb@@.-@, I’ve just grabbed my copy of their edition of Always Coming Home from the shelf, and this is from the back flap:
I imagine it will be nine volumes, when they eventually get the rights to Earthsea (but you can buy the complete edition now from another publisher … ) .
I hope at least some of the criticism is included in all of these books.