Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2013, she has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many honors and awards including Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud. Her most recent publications are Finding My Elegy (New and Selected Poems, 1960-2010) and The Unreal and the Real (Selected Short Stories), 2012.

In A Wizard of Earthsea Le Guin has written a somber, disciplined fantasy constructed along the lines of Lord of the Rings, with its evocation of a profound evil that must be confronted by a heroic, self-sacrificing person. More than Tolkien and Lewis, however, Le Guin locates the origin of evil in the human heart that must overcome it. J.K. Rowling's treatment of Harry Potter's personal struggle with Voldemort owes much to Le Guin's treatment of Ged/Sparrowhawk.