Crazy Weather

Ursula K. Le Guin selected Crazy Weather for her contribution to Pharos Editions citing Charles McNichols "offhanded skill, the ease with which (he) takes us deep into a complex society and the complex minds and hearts of its people." In four days of "glory-hunting" with an Indian comrade, South Boy, who is white, realizes he must choose between two cultures. Le Guin explains how she finds Crazy Weather to be "about a soul not at home and not at peace: South Boy, who on the verge of manhood is living in and between two worlds, without a clear way to go in either." Crazy Weather is a unique tale of American identity that serves as "an important document in our cultural history."

Charles L. McNichols was a naval aviator in World War I who later worked in the movies and wrote for magazines. He will always be remembered for Crazy Weather, originally published in 1944 and his only book-length work of fiction.

Ursula K. Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2013, she has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many honors and awards including Hugo, Nebula, the National Book Award, and the PEN-Malamud.