At last, a major American poet collected for the first time in the sixth volume of the definitive Library of Edition of her works
STARRED REVIEW IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ursula K. Le Guin’s career began and ended with poetry. This sixth volume in the definitive Library of America edition of her works gathers, for the first time, her collected poems—from her earliest collection Wild Angels (1974) through her final publication, the collection So Far So Good, which she delivered to her editor just a week before her death in 2018.
The themes explored in the poems gathered here resonate through all Le Guin’s oeuvre, but find their strongest voice in her poetry: exploration as a metaphor for both human bravery and creativity, the mystery and fragility of nature and the impact of humankind on their environment, the Tao Te Ching, marriage, womanhood, and even cats. Le Guin’s poetry is often traditional in form but never in style: her verse is earthy, surprising, and lyrical.
Including some 40 poems never before collected, this volume restores to print much of Le Guin's remarkable verse. It features a new introduction by editor Harold Bloom, written before his death in 2019, in which he reflects on the power of Le Guin’s poems, which he calls “American originals.” It also features helpful explanatory notes and a chronology of Le Guin’s life.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was one of most acclaimed writers of the last half century, the author of numerous novels and stories across multiple genres as well as a dozen books of poetry. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Harold Bloom (1930–2019) was the leading literary critic of his generation, the author of more than forty books including The Anxiety of Influence, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, The Western Canon, and The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon.
"This imaginative and insightful collection is a worthy tribute to the poetic life’s work of an important American writer."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
