World Fantasy 2018, Day 2 - Earthsea at 50

Originally published November 2018 - I’m writing here at my first World Fantasy. One the first full day of programming I attended the panel, “Earthsea at 50,” which was moderated by author Fran Wilde and featured illustrator Charles Vess, who worked with Ursula K. Leguin on the illustrations for The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition.

This session was a highlight of the day for me, so suppose I should share some of the panelists thoughts about Earthsea, which originally was marketed as a children’s book. How it reshaped fantasy and opened realms of fantasy up to vistas beyond epic works like The Lord of the Rings, inspiring authors in the room like myself to write fantasy one day.

But what captivated me was Charles Vess's talk about working with Leguin, getting her advice and direction on the illustrations in a give-and-take about the look of first a dragon, while the various publishers of the Earthsea books were locked in discussions about the rights for a year before even sending Charles a contract to sign. He finally admitted to Leguin that it felt odd to be spending so much time on the project without a contract yet. To which Leguin expressed surprise. She thought they were already “engaged.”

According to Charles, this was not the first time books of Earthsea were illustrated. Each previous illustrator had said how they looked forward to working with Leguin on the illustrations, then completed them without ever being in contact with her. She was surprised when Charles not only said that as had the others, but began seeking her thoughts on the images he was working on. He showed us examples of pencil illustrations, first of the dragon I mentioned, then did one in flight, which was more to her liking. The dragon had spikes sticking straight out and Leguin told him that wasn’t quite right, the head looked too masculine. So he changed the look, making the dragon more feminine. She expressed concern over the dragon's reptilian eyes and that his early version had hands. She told him, in the time of Earthsea's creation man and dragon had started as one being and then split apart. The dragons did not want to be materialistic, able to grasp things as the humans did. Instead, they wanted the freedom wings gave them to fly.

Charles displayed image after image. The one thing Leguin wanted most seemed to be more chickens— and thistles, which by their beauty made you want to touch them only to find they had thorns. She felt that summed up the nature of Earthsea's magic in many ways. So, Charles added lots of chickens and a has a framed thistle in the last illustration of the book.

After Leguin’s passing, his work finished, he began to move on only to learn there was a never before published Earthsea story being added and he was being asked to illustrate that for the book as well. A question was asked about whether there might be any consideration of a book being written that included their correspondence and collaboration on the illustrations. He replied, he thought there could be, and that Leguin had written a blog post about the process, which would be perfect for such a book, too.

After the session Charles gave out posters of the book cover, which he autographed. I got one— ah, the fan in me. I later went to the art show room, where many of those illustrations were on display, but not up for auction. Thank goodness, I’d have gone broke if they had been for sale. It is much cheaper to buy the book, which is far thicker than I could have imagined, having delighted in reading the thin volumes of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, and so many more.

D.H.