Ursula K. Le Guin was a great scifi and fantasy writer. She died a few days ago and amongst all the articles appreciating her work, I came across this letter she wrote.

Le Guin was asked to contribute a blurb to an anthology of science fiction stories. Here response says a tremendous amount about her:

Dear Mr Radziewicz,

I can imagine myself blurbing a book in which Brian Aldiss, predictably, sneers at my work, because then I could preen myself on my magnanimity. But I cannot imagine myself blurbing a book, the first of the series, which not only contains no writing by women, but the tone of which is so self-contentedly, exclusively male, like a club, or a locker room. That would not be magnanimity, but foolishness. Gentlemen, I just don’t belong here.

Yours truly, (Signed) Ursula K. Le Guin

Hell of a letter.