Award-winning US science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin has died, her family said. She was 88. The best-selling writer passed away on Monday at her home in Portland, Oregon, after a period of ill health, the family said late Tuesday. Le Guin's books melded dragons and wizards with spaceships to tackle earth-bound problems of race, gender and class, the BBC reported.
She wrote more than 20 novels and over 100 short stories that sold millions of copies around the world. Her verified Twitter account posted a statement saying: "The family of Ursula K. Le Guin is deeply saddened to announce her peaceful death yesterday (Monday) afternoon."
The family of Ursula K. Le Guin is deeply saddened to announce her peaceful death yesterday afternoon. https://t.co/DC7oy16EWD— Ursula K. Le Guin (@ursulaleguin) January 23, 2018
She was best known for the 'Earthsea' series, written for young adults, and her 1969 sci-fi classic The Left Hand of Darkness, set on a planet called Gethen, where everyone is ambisexual. "I tend to avoid fiction about dysfunctional urban middle-class people written in the present tense," she once said. "This makes it hard to find a new novel, sometimes."
In a career spanning more than half a century, she won a number of Nebula and Hugo science fiction and fantasy awards. She also received the Newbery Medal, the top honor for US children's literature and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American letters. The US Library of Congress in 2000 designated her a Living Legend for her contribution to America's cultural heritage, the BBC report said.
Reacting to news of her death, horror author Stephen King paid tribute to Le Guin as "one of the greats". "Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon. Godspeed into the galaxy," he wrote on Twitter. He was joined in his condolences by other literary and cultural icons including fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, media personality Ann Curry, and others.
Usula K. LeGuin, one of the greats, has passed. Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon. Godspeed into the galaxy.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 23, 2018
I just learned that Ursula K. Le Guin has died. Her words are always with us. Some of them are written on my soul. I miss her as a glorious funny prickly person, & I miss her as the deepest and smartest of the writers, too. Still honoured I got to do this: https://t.co/U4mma5pJMw— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 23, 2018
Got the news of Ursula K. Le Guin's passing and immediately called Harlan Ellison. I said, "I was worried 'cuz we're losing all the great ones." He laughed and said, "I'm fine. I'm one of the lesser ones."— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 23, 2018
"We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains." -Ursula K. Le Guin has died, via @nytimes #Portland https://t.co/swshRKaHSs— Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) January 23, 2018
Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber on October 21, 1929 in Berkeley, California. She was educated at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, and New York's Columbia University, becoming a Fulbright Fellow in 1953. She became an expert in anthropology and was influenced by anarchist and Taoist thinking, the BBc said. Her first novel, Rocannon's World was published in 1966.
(With Inputs from IANS)
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