The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The title is from A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad Harper & Row published the book in 1975. Le Guin called it a look back at her start as a writer. The book has 17 stories that had already been published. Four of the stories were the first ideas for novels she wrote later: "The Word of Unbinding" and "The Rule of Names" was the beginning of Earthsea. "Semley's Necklace" was first titles "Dowry of the Angyar" in 1964. Then it was the start of the novel Rocannon's World in 1966; "Winter's King" is about people living on the planet Winter, as is Le Guin's later novel The Left Hand of Darkness. Most of the other stories are also connected to Le Guin's novels. The story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" won the Hugo Award in 1974. "The Day Before the Revolution" won the Locus and Nebula Awards in 1975.
Contents
Foreword
"Semley's Necklace"
"April in Paris"
"The Masters"
"Darkness Box"
"The Word of Unbinding"
"The Rule of Names"
"Winter's King"
"The Good Trip"
"Nine Lives"
"Things"
"A Trip to the Head"
"Vaster than Empires and More Slow"
"The Stars Below"
"The Field of Vision"
"Direction of the Road"
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"
"The Day Before the Revolution"
References
Fantasy
Short story collections
Hainish Cycle