It’s the birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), whose speculative fiction had both vast commercial success and strong literary cred and who is perhaps best known for her 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, set in a world of androgynous people who shift between male and female.

Le Guin (originally Kroeber) was born in Berkeley, California, where her parents were both hot-shot anthropologists at UC Berkeley. (When, oh when, will our culture stop being dominated by hot-shot anthropologists? Please. Give athletes a chance.) Le Guin grew up reading mythology, fantasy, and science fiction, but lost interest in science fiction for a time because it was “all about hardware and soldiers: White men go forth and conquer the universe.”

Le Guin studied at Radcliffe (1951), got a master’s from Columbia (1952), and went to Paris on a Fulbright; there she met and married Charles Le Guin, also a Fulbright scholar. They returned to the U.S., where Le Guin focused on raising their son and two daughters. But she was also writing. Her first published novel was Rocannon’s World (1966), soon followed by her Earthsea series, without which, as one author has said, “…the Harry Potter megafranchise could scarcely be imagined” (John Wray; see this article).

The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Le Guin the first female author to win both. She went on to write more than 20 novels and many collections of poetry, short stories, and essays. Le Guin, an ardent feminist, didn’t give a fig what the literary establishment thought of her yet was a major influence on such authors as Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, and Neil Gaiman. Michael Chabon has called her the greatest American writer of her generation, so if you disagree with that, take it up with Chabon.

Have a Monday brilliant with autumnal colors, yet consider a cup of cocoa to take the edge off the chill, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.