Back The Complete Earthsea, Volume I

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Complete Earthsea, Volume I

A Wizard of Earthsea | The Tombs of Atuan | The Farthest Shore | two stories More

Edited by Brian Attebery

Books have arrived in the LOA warehouse. Purchase your copy today and it will be shipped to you immediately—weeks before the official publication date.
Available in bookstores October 20.

Or buy both Earthsea volumes in a beautifully designed boxed set.

Overview
Table of Contents

Overview

Video Exploring Earthsea: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Fantasy Masterpiece
September 16, 2026

In the far-flung archipelago of Earthsea, dragons fly on the winds of the western isles and a grove of trees is the magical center of the world. A project that spanned her celebrated career, Ursula K. Le Guin’s beloved Earthsea saga has thrilled generations of readers, becoming one of the foundational classics of the fantasy genre. The definitive Library of America edition of Le Guin’s collected works continues with a handsome two-volume set collecting all five novels and nine stories of the complete Earthsea.

This first volume opens with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), the original wizard school fantasy, in which true names are a source of power, not to be shared with others. As the novel unfolds, Ged, a young man from an island far from the center of Earthsea, learns to wield the magic within him. The Tombs of Atuan (1971) tells the story of a young woman’s quest to reclaim her true name, taken from her when she became priestess of the Nameless Ones. And in the National Book Award–winning The Farthest Shore (1972), Ged embarks on a long journey with the teenage Prince Arren to find out why magic seems to be draining out of Earthsea.

As a special feature the volume includes three maps based on Le Guin’s own hand-drawn sketches by award-winning illustrator Olivia Lomenech Gill, who also provides the jacket art. An appendix collects three afterwords to the novels, written by Le Guin in 2012, as well as two early stories that marked her first explorations of Earthsea. Notes by scholar Brian Attebery trace Le Guin’s commentary on the novels across various essays and talks, spotlighting the many allusions in the books to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Brian Attebery, editor, is emeritus professor of English at Idaho State University and a series editor for Perspectives on Fantasy from Bloomsbury. He edited The Norton Book of Science Fiction with Ursula K. Le Guin and Karen Joy Fowler and is the author of Fantasy: How It Works and Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth, among other books. In 2019 he was Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Fantasy Literature at the University of Glasgow.

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

This volume is available for adoption in the Guardian of American Letters Fund.

Table of Contents

A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA

THE TOMBS OF ATUAN

THE FARTHEST SHORE

STORIES
The Word of Unbinding
The Rule of Names

APPENDIX
Afterword to A Wizard of Earthsea
Afterword to The Tombs of Atuan
Afterword to The Farthest Shore

32.00 List Price: $37.50 (Save: 15%) Free shipping on orders $60 and over

Or buy from our partners

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bookshop.org

Phone orders: 1-800-964-5778 Request product #204166

ISBN: 978-1-59853-850-2 527 pages

LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House

N° 400 Library of America Series
Subscribers can purchase the slipcased edition by signing in to their accounts.
Subscribe

Related Books

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories (boxed set)

Ursula K. Le Guin: Annals of the Western Shore LOA N°335

Madeleine L’Engle: The Kairos Novels (boxed set)

Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels LOA N°348

American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (boxed set)

Get 10% off your first Library of America purchase.

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter and receive a coupon for 10% off your first LOA purchase. Discount offer available for first-time customers only.

Enter your email address here:

Library of America

CURATOR
A champion of America’s great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation’s history and culture.
Learn More

PUBLISHER
From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely recognized as America’s literary canon.
Browse our books Subscribe

NON-PROFIT
With contributions from donors, Library of America preserves and celebrates a vital part of our cultural heritage for generations to come.
Support our mission