Ursula K. Le Guin's Lao Tzu Translation — Signed First Edition Reference

Le Guin’s rendition of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching — published by Shambhala in 1997 as Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way — is not a conventional translation. Le Guin did not read classical Chinese; instead, she worked from multiple English translations and scholarly commentaries over four decades, creating what she called a “rendition” that captured the spirit rather than the letter of the text.

The Project

Le Guin had been studying the Tao Te Ching since she was a teenager, when her father, the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, gave her a copy of the Paul Carus translation. Taoist thought permeates her fiction — The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Dispossessed all engage with Taoist ideas about balance, non-action, and the complementarity of opposites. The book’s subtitle acknowledges the dual meaning of Tao (“the Way”) and Te (“the Power,” or virtue).

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Shambhala, Boston Publication date: 1997 Format: Hardcover in dust jacket

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $75–$200
• Unsigned first edition: $10–$25

This is one of the most personally revealing books in Le Guin’s bibliography. Her notes and commentaries on each chapter provide insight into her philosophical commitments and her understanding of her own fiction. For collectors interested in Le Guin as a thinker, this is an essential acquisition.