Lathe of Heaven Archive Big Picture, Small Picture: Context for Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven Author: Doug Cornett | Mar132016 Categories: Series No comments On the morning of May 18, 1980, nine years after The Lathe of Heaven first appeared, Mt. St. Helens erupts just seventy miles north of Portland, sending a roiling shaft of smoke nine miles into the atmosphere.