Le Guin in Letterpress

Inspired partly by the fabulous Foolscap edition of "Direction of the Road," which I once had the good fortune to admire in person, I've been trying to assemble a bibliography of sorts of all of Ursula K. Le Guin's works available in letterpress. As far as I'm aware none of her "major" works have ever been done in fine press editions (though there are many very nice conventionally printed collectable editions out there, featuring illustrations, leather bindings, etc.). But I was able to turn up the following more obscure works in letterpress editions. If anyone is aware of any others, I'd love to hear about them.

Bound Volumes

• Wild Angels / Capra Press, 1975 / Chapbook. / 200 numbered hardbound copies, unknown number of unnumbered copies in paper wrappers


• Gwilan's Harp / Lord John Press, 1981 / ISBN: 978-0-935716-11-5 / 300 in paper wrappers, 50 clothbound.


• The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune / Cheap Street, 1982 / Illustrated by Alicia Austin. Hardbound. Available in a shared tray case with Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip around the World; combined set is titled The Adventures in Kroy / 200 numbered copies, 27 lettered copies


• Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip around the World / Cheap Street, 1983 / Illustrated by Alicia Austin. Hardbound. Available in a shared tray case with The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune; combined set is titled The Adventures in Kroy / 200 numbered copies, 27 lettered copies


• In the Red Zone / Lord John Press, 1983 / Illustrated by Henk Pander. ISBN: 978-0-935716-21-4 / 150 numbered copies, 50 quarter leather bound deluxe copies


• Texts / Gail Watson/Zuni Press, 1990 / https://gailwatson.art/editions-unique-books / Artist's book, loose leaves bound with ribbon, tray case. / 30 copies


• Findings / Ox Head Press, 1992 / Slipcase. / 450 softcover copies, 26 lettered hardcover copies


• Direction of the Road / Foolscap, 2007 / http://www.foolscappress.com/direction.php / Illustrated by Aaron Johnson. Tray case. / 150 numbered copies.


• The Ones Who Walk away form Omelas / No Reply Press, 2023 / https://www.noreplypress.com/limitededitions/omelas / 350 paperbound copies, 350 hardbound copies

Broadsides and other poetic ephemera

• Traveling / Bellevue Press, 1977 / Single page postcard poem


• From Hsin Ch'i-chi 1140-1207 / Bellevue Press, 1977 / Single page postcard poem


• Torrey Pines Reserve / Lord John Press, 1980 / Single page broadside poem / 150 numbered copies


• July / The North Press, 2018 / https://thenorthpress.square.site/product/le-guin-july/54 / Single page broadside poem / 400 copies


• Slick Rock Creek / Neu Haus Press, 2019 / Single page broadside poem / 150 copies


• A Grass Song: November / Littoral Press / https://www.littoralpress.com/shop/p/ursula-k-le-guin-a-grass-song-november / Single page broadside poem

Related works

• The Inland Whale / Yolla Bolly Press, 1987 / by Theodora Kroeber (Ursula K. Le Guin's mother); introduction by Le Guin / Illustrated by Karin Wikstrom. Hardbound, slip case. / 135 numbered copies

This is such a wonderful list. Thank you for the research.

I'm happy to report that No Reply Press will be publishing a new edition of a major work of Le Guin's in 2022. As (probably) the most influential Portland author, her work is a must for us. The rights have been granted by her estate, and we are collaborating with a heavy-hitting local artist. Very excited about it.

That's wonderful news! Can't wait to hear more about it.

And I really do I appreciate this list — I had missed a few of these in my research of past Le Guin fine presswork.

>2 grifgon: Awesome news! Really looking forward to that.

Also, if I'm permitted the luxury of a guess--or, really, more of a hope--I'm crossing my fingers that you're doing The Lathe of Heaven. Set in Portland, a finalist for the Hugo and the Nebula, and as far as I know never released in any sort of limited edition, even by Easton Press or similar.

>2 grifgon: That’ll certainly be a day one purchase for me. Very excited to hear more!

>2 grifgon: Omelas?

>1 ambyrglow: Awesome list! I knew nothing of Foolscap when they printed one of my favorite stories of Le Guin's, especially because I probably would have been much better able to afford it at whatever price it was offered back then. Maybe someday I'll run across it cheap in a small used bookshop in some small town in Oregon. Ha!!!

There is another cycle of stories set on the Oregon coast that are amazing as well. I can't dredge the title(s) out of my blonde and 60'ish memory right now but I'll try to find it.

>2 grifgon: That is great news indeed! Will be an instant buy or instant bout of toxic reader envy depending on the price and my situation when it comes out. My vote would be Left Hand of Darkness with the gender pronoun exploring appendices of the anniversary edition (maybe printed as an accompanying chapbook?) illustrated by a LGBTQIA+ artist from Portland. And yes, I realize you didn't ask for a vote or wishlist. Whatever title you have chosen will be awesome. There are so many great candidates.

>5 SolerSystem: >6 ambyrglow: >7 const-char-star: Thanks for the encouragement!

All of the titles suggested are excellent choices. Could be one of them. Could be none of them. Who knows!

>9 jveezer: I've been thinking the same in regards to Foolscap's "Direction of the Road" — if you happen to find TWO of them for cheap in a small used bookshop in some small town in Oregon, let me know!!!

A question for which feedback would be very useful — For our edition, and we may have the opportunity to work with a close relative of Le Guin's for an introduction. Does this sort of an introduction interest people? I'm on the fence.

I'm hoping for The Left Hand of Darkness.

>10 grifgon: I think an personal 'afterword' by a relative would be amazing as well as literally correct for the book. That would leave the option open for an introduction from another writer or scholarly fan of Le Guin and her legacy. But if I had to chose only one, anything from a relative who knew her personally would be great.

>10 grifgon: I'm in agreement with jveezer that this might work better as an afterword, but then I usually prefer afterwords; I don't like anything coming before the text of the book that might spoil the contents to a new reader. But I would love to hear from someone who knew Le Guin at the time that she wrote the work and who could share insights on her process or how events in her life affected her writing.

>1 ambyrglow: Thank you for the list. I just ordered a copy of Cobbler’s Rune the other day, awaiting arrival. Direction of the Road is one of my Fine Press grails, really hoping to find a copy one day.

>2 grifgon: this is very exciting! Sign me up for the Edition above De Luxe, maybe De Le Guin? As a Portlander, Le Guin fan, and No Reply fan, this is an ultimate trifecta.

>10 grifgon: I'm happy to have been able to track down all the "bound" volumes minus my personal holy grail, Direction of The Road, so I'm happy to here I'll have another to add to my collection!

>15 NathanOv: If you're willing to do pictorial reviews of any of them, I'd love to see what they look like! There's no interior pictures on the Internet for many of them, and I'm really curious about the illustration style of Findings, just to call one out.

>16 ambyrglow: Apologies for not seeing your request earlier - while I don't have the camera for a quality pictorial review, I threw together a quick gallery of images: https://imgur.com/a/GrxAet5

While some are hardbound, mine is softbound in a paper "slipcase." Apologies for not including anything for scale when I took these - though you can get an idea from my hand in the 3rd and 4th pictures.

The text is printed rather large, and the story is brief but still feels substantial. The only "embellishment" of any sort is interesting handmade papers facing the title page and at the end of the book, also shown in the 3rd picture.

>17 NathanOv: Thank you! Those are very nice papers, but now I find myself deeply confused about why it's described as having "drawings by Terry Hauptman" elsewhere online. I'll remove the reference above, anyway. (I have read the story; for anyone who hasn't but is curious, it's available online at http://www.moondance.org/2007/spring/fiction/findings.html.)

>18 ambyrglow: That ones a bit of a headscratcher for me too! I thought maybe the hardcover had additional content, but no - I'm seeing that description for the paper as well. My guess is a collaboration fell through right before publishing and they never updated the details.

>19 NathanOv: While we're talking mysteries, I'm curious about the cover of Into the Red Zone. Most of the images I can find online of the hardbound edition feature red and black marbled papers (logically enough, given the title and subject), but then there's one with yellow marbled papers. A special request? Did they run out of red? I have no idea.

>20 ambyrglow: That one I can sort of answer for you! The 50 signed copies with the marled paper covered boards are all specially bound, and each one has unique hand marbling. Mine is red as well, but has a nice gold gilt mixed in. I can't answer though why they diverged so far from the pattern with the yellow one!

Well, this might be my most painful near-miss as a collector, but some lucky individual snagged a copy of Direction of The Road from the Veatchs this month:

https://www.veatchs.com/images/upload/cat-100a-web.pdf

>22 NathanOv: That's one of my holy grails too...

>23 jveezer: I’d just talked to Lynne about the books I’m in search of in August too, and have alerts set on their site along with many others, but I think it was only ever listed in that PDF.

Almost wish I hadn’t seen it!

>22 NathanOv:
>24 NathanOv:

This is an unfortunate (but rare) aspect of collecting fine and private press books. Every collector has a few books they didn't see, saw too late or did see and procrastinated longer than was sensible. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

>25 dlphcoracl: Well, if copies keep showing up every 6 years or so maybe I'll have better luck in 2028.

>22 NathanOv: wow. I didn’t think I’d ever see one of these for sale. I suppose I’ve used up my personal grail luck for the next few years or so by recently acquiring the Theodore Press King Lear.

>27 Esoterics: I’ll admit it’s been a lucky year for me too with multiple rare Red Angel Press and Nawakum finds. I would’ve gladly traded all of those for this one though.

>28 NathanOv: which Red Angel Press editions have you managed to find?

>29 Esoterics: I have about a dozen of them, but the big one this year was Melville’s “Cetology.” That and Aesop’s Fables have been the two major gaps in my collection, though there’s a few other obscure ones I’m missing as well.

>1 ambyrglow: I believe this one was letterpress, but am not certain, as I have not set eyes on it in a long time, my copy being in storage somewhere. I do remember the cover, at least, as being letterpress...I think.

From Elfland to Poughkeepsie. Portland: Pendragon Press, 1973. Small chapbook. Reprinted in 1975 and in 1978. My copy is one of the reprints. Lecture on how NOT to write fantasy, it is particularly hard on the works of Katherine Kurtz.

NOTE: Publisher is not to be confused with the Pendragon Press of Massachusetts which specialized in music and related subjects or the defunct UK press of the same name, publisher of horror/SF/fantasy.

>31 Glacierman: Pendragon Press published several Le Guin chapbooks ("From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" 1973, "The Water is Wide" 1976, "Walking in Cornwall: A Poem for the Solstice" 1976), but as far as I'm aware they were all printed via modern, conventional methods.

The first edition of The Compass Rose was published by Pendragon Press/Underwood-Miller; I'm unclear if it's the same Pendragon Press or not, but either way while it's a very nice signed limited edition it's also not letterpress.

>32 ambyrglow: Could well be. I haven't seen my "Elfland" in years, so my memory of it is very dim, but it was an interesting read and she was not kind to Kurtz!

>32 ambyrglow: Yes, all three appear to be offset or digital, but on nice paper and otherwise entirely handmade. Well worth collecting!

I actually just reread the solstice poem this morning.

>34 NathanOv: I DMed Glacierman about this but I'll mention it to you too, as a Le Guin collector: Winter Texts has done several very small run, small press, entirely conventionally printed editions in the last couple years, if that's something you want to look at.

>30 NathanOv: Ah, Cetology is high up on my list as well. I had almost forgotten about that one since it’s so uncommon unlike Red Angel’s other Melville title. Their Thoreau title is also on my list, one was available for a while, but I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

>36 Esoterics: "War" from Walden is definitely worth watching for! The binding and illustrations are relatively simple, but I find reading Thoreau's nature journals in rustic handmade editions like this and the ones from Gaspereau Press to be very cathartic.

>22 NathanOv: Good luck in your hunt. It's a magnificent edition.

I came across another broadside from Littoral Press, "A Grass Song: November" which was printed for the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival. Still available from the press, and probably the favorite of the broadsides I've come across after "Torrey Pines Reserve."

Nice find! I should do an update of this list (gotta get The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas added, too).