| Annotation | Complex utopia described from inside the utopia but with, in The Back of the Book” (409-525), the sort of detail about the society that might be part of an anthropological report. One focus of the novel is the life story of a woman known as “Stone Telling” that illustrates both the positive and negative aspects of life produced by the many-faceted interactions among the people. |
| Additional Publishers | U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986. Rpt. without the cassette. London: Gollancz, 2016, with an “Introduction” by John Scalzi (ix-xi). The Author’s Expanded Edition without the cassette. Ed. Brian Attebery. New York: The Library of America, 2019 includes “Pandora Revisits the Kesh and Comes Back with New Texts” (619-87) [Dangerous People (621-68), which was first published as Dangerous People. Ed. Brian Attebury. New York: Library of America eBook Classic, 2019, was completed by Le Guin in December 2019 from material she had drafted in 1983 or 1984. Rpt. in her The Space Crone. Ed. So Mayer and Sarah Shin (Np: Silver Press, 2023), 195-224. The book includes extensive notes by the editor and a very detailed chronology of Le Guin’s life and works; “Some Kesh Meditations: Sitting in the Ninth House” (669-71); “Blood Lodge Songs” (672-81), and “Kesh Syntax” (682-85)], “Other Writings Related to Always Coming Home” (689-702) [May’s Lion” (691-98); Navna: The River-running by Intrumo of Sinshan” (699)], “Essays” (703-89) [“World-Making” (700-02); “A Non-Euclidian View of California as a Cold Place to Be” (703-24); “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (725-30); “Text, Silence, Performance” (731-40); “Legends for a New Land” (741-57); “The Making of Always Coming Home” (758-80); and “Indian Uncles” (781-89), a Chronology (793-807), a Note on the Texts (808-11), and Notes (812-26). Parts published previously as “Time in the Valley.” Hudson Review 37.4 (Winter 1984-5): 536-48; “The Trouble with the Cotton People.” The Missouri Review 7.2 (1984): 86-95; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 410-19 with an editor’s note on 409 “The Visionary.” Omni 7.1 (1984): 100-02, 104, 106-07, 154, 157-60, 162-63 [Rpt. in The Visionary: The Life Story of Flicker of the Serpentine. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1984. Vol. 1 of Capra Back-to-Back; and in The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1989), 19-53]; “Dira.” Parabola 9 (Winter 1984): 53-55; and four poems--”It Was Never Really Different. Given to the Red Adobe heyimas of Wakwaha by Ninepoint of Chumo”; “A Song Used in Chumo When Daming a Creek or Diverting Water to a Holding Tank for Irrigation”; “A Bay Laurel Song”; and “An Exhortation From the Second and Third Houses of Earth. A calligraphed poster-scroll from the Serpentine heyimas of Wakwaha-na.” Whole Earth Review (July 1985): 20-23. |
| Full Text | 1985 Le Guin, Ursula K[roeber] (1929-2018). Always Coming Home. New York: Harper & Row. Includes a cassette of music and poetry, which is now available at ursulakleguintoddbarton.bandcamp.com. U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986. Rpt. without the cassette. London: Gollancz, 2016, with an “Introduction” by John Scalzi (ix-xi). The Author’s Expanded Edition without the cassette. Ed. Brian Attebery. New York: The Library of America, 2019 includes “Pandora Revisits the Kesh and Comes Back with New Texts” (619-87) [Dangerous People (621-68), which was first published as Dangerous People. Ed. Brian Attebury. New York: Library of America eBook Classic, 2019, was completed by Le Guin in December 2019 from material she had drafted in 1983 or 1984. Rpt. in her The Space Crone. Ed. So Mayer and Sarah Shin (Np: Silver Press, 2023), 195-224. The book includes extensive notes by the editor and a very detailed chronology of Le Guin’s life and works; “Some Kesh Meditations: Sitting in the Ninth House” (669-71); “Blood Lodge Songs” (672-81), and “Kesh Syntax” (682-85)], “Other Writings Related to Always Coming Home” (689-702) [May’s Lion” (691-98); Navna: The River-running by Intrumo of Sinshan” (699)], “Essays” (703-89) [“World-Making” (700-02); “A Non-Euclidian View of California as a Cold Place to Be” (703-24); “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (725-30); “Text, Silence, Performance” (731-40); “Legends for a New Land” (741-57); “The Making of Always Coming Home” (758-80); and “Indian Uncles” (781-89), a Chronology (793-807), a Note on the Texts (808-11), and Notes (812-26). Parts published previously as “Time in the Valley.” Hudson Review 37.4 (Winter 1984-5): 536-48; “The Trouble with the Cotton People.” The Missouri Review 7.2 (1984): 86-95; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 410-19 with an editor’s note on 409 “The Visionary.” Omni 7.1 (1984): 100-02, 104, 106-07, 154, 157-60, 162-63 [Rpt. in The Visionary: The Life Story of Flicker of the Serpentine. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1984. Vol. 1 of Capra Back-to-Back; and in The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1989), 19-53]; “Dira.” Parabola 9 (Winter 1984): 53-55; and four poems--”It Was Never Really Different. Given to the Red Adobe heyimas of Wakwaha by Ninepoint of Chumo”; “A Song Used in Chumo When Daming a Creek or Diverting Water to a Holding Tank for Irrigation”; “A Bay Laurel Song”; and “An Exhortation From the Second and Third Houses of Earth. A calligraphed poster-scroll from the Serpentine heyimas of Wakwaha-na.” Whole Earth Review (July 1985): 20-23. PSt Complex utopia described from inside the utopia but with, in The Back of the Book” (409-525), the sort of detail about the society that might be part of an anthropological report. One focus of the novel is the life story of a woman known as “Stone Telling” that illustrates both the positive and negative aspects of life produced by the many-faceted interactions among the people. Female author. |
