Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was bom on October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California. Her parents were the noted anthropologist, Alfred L. Kroeber and Theodora K. Kroeber, author of the young adult classic Ishi: Last of His Tribe (1964). Because of her parents' occupations, Le Guin's childhood was rich in the kinds of material she came to use in her fiction: myths, legends, and accounts of other cultures. The influence of this background is evident in nearly all of her work, but is especially apparent in her underrated masterpiece, Alimys Coming Home.

Le Guin graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 and the following year earned a master's degree in French and Italian literature at Columbia University. While working on her doctorate degree, she won a Fulbright Fellowship and travelled to France. There she met a fellow American Fulbright scholar, Charles A. Le Guin. They were soon married in Paris...