page_title: Ursula K. Le Guin
section_title: Early life: California
hierarchical_section_title: Ursula K. Le Guin / Life / Early life: California
caption_attribution_description: Ishi at present time (1915)
context_page_description: Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American writer. She wrote books, poetry, children's books, essays, short stories, fantasy and science fiction.
context_section_description: Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929. Her father, Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876–1960), was an anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Le Guin's mother, Theodora Kroeber (1897–1979; born Theodora Covel Kracaw), had a graduate degree in psychology. She started writing in her sixties and became a successful author. Her best known work was Ishi in Two Worlds (1961). This was a biography of Ishi, an indigenous American who was the last known member of the Yahi tribe.
  Ursula had three older brothers: Karl, Theodore, and Clifton. The family had a large collection of books. Ursula and her brothers all liked to read when they were young. Le Guin read science fiction and fantasy. She and her brothers often read issues of Thrilling Wonder Stories and Astounding Science Fiction. She liked myths and legends. She especially liked Norse mythology and Native American legends that her father would tell her.
  Many people visited the Kroeber family. Some of the visitors were well-known academics such as Robert Oppenheimer. Le Guin used Oppenheimer as the model for her lead character in The Dispossessed, a physicist named Shevek. The family lived in a summer home in the Napa valley and a house in Berkeley during the school year.
caption: Ishi in 1915
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