Andre Norton

Louisa May Alcott Madeleine L’Engle Philip Pullman

Jane Austen Gail Carson Levine Mythmaker:
Avi C.S. Lewis The Story of
l. frank baum Lois Lowry J.K. Rowling,
Judy Blume, Ann M. Martin Second Edition
Second Edition Stephenie Meyer Maurice Sendak
Betsy Byars L.M. Montgomery Shel Silverstein
Meg Cabot Pat Mora Gary Soto
Beverly Cleary Walter Dean Myers Jerry Spinelli
Robert Cormier Andre Norton R.L. Stine
Bruce Coville Scott O’Dell Edward L.
Roald Dahl Barbara Park Stratemeyer
Charles Dickens Katherine Paterson E.B. White
Ernest J. Gaines Gary Paulsen Laura Ingalls
Theodor Geisel Richard Peck Wilder
S.E. Hinton Tamora Pierce Laurence Yep
Will Hobbs David “Dav” Pilkey Jane Yolen
Anthony Horowitz Edgar Allan Poe
Stephen King Beatrix Potter
Andre Norton
John Bankston

Foreword by
Kyle Zimmer
Andre Norton

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â•… Andre Norton / John Bankston.
â•… p. cm. — (Who wrote that?)
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 Table of Contents
Foreword by
Kyle Zimmer
President, First Book 6

1 Blessed Breaks and Great Depressions 11

2 Lifetime Habits 17

3 Norton Luck 31

4 Spies Like Us 45

5 Unholy Trinity 57

6 Building a Universe 71

7 Witch World 83

8 Collaborations and Legacies 91

9 Remembrance 101
Chronology 106
notes 108
works by andre norton 113
Popular Books 116
Popular Characters 117
Major Awards 118
Bibliography 119
further reading 122
Index 124
˘ Who Wrote that?

Foreword by
Kyle Zimmer
President, First Book

Humanity is powered by stories. From our earliest

days as thinking beings, we employed every available
tool to tell each other stories . We danced, drew pictures
on the walls of our caves, spoke, and sang. All of this
extraordinary effort was designed to entertain, recount
the news of the day, explain natural occurrences — and
then gradually to build religious and cultural traditions
and establish the common bonds and continuity that
eventually formed civilizations. Stories are the most
powerful force in the universe; they are the primary
element that has distinguished our evolutionary path.
Our love of the story has not diminished with time.
Enormous segments of societies are devoted to the art of
storytelling. Book sales in the United States alone topped
$24 billion in 2006; movie studios spend fortunes to
create and promote stories; and the news industry is more
pervasive in its presence than ever before.
There is no mystery to our fascination. Great stories
are magic. They can introduce us to new cultures, or
remind us of the nobility and failures of our own, inspire
us to greatness or scare us to death; but above all, sto-
ries provide human insight on a level that is unavailable
through any other source. In fact, stories connect each of
us to the rest of humanity not just in our own time, but
also throughout history.
 Foreword ˘

This special magic of books is the greatest treasure that

we can hand down from generation to generation. In fact,
that spark in a child that comes from books became
the motivation for the creation of my organization, First
Book, a national literacy program with a simple mission:
to provide new books to the most disadvantaged children.
At present, First Book has been at work in hundreds of
communities for over a decade. Every year children in
need receive millions of books through our organization
and millions more are provided through dedicated lit-
eracy institutions across the United States and around the
world. In addition, groups of people dedicate themselves
tirelessly to working with children to share reading and
stories in every imaginable setting from schools to the
streets. Of course, this Herculean effort serves many
important goals. Literacy translates to productivity and
employability in life and many other valid and even
essential elements. But at the heart of this movement
are people who love stories, love to read, and want
desperately to ensure that no one misses the wonderful
possibilities that reading provides.
When thinking about the importance of books, there
is an overwhelming urge to cite the literary devotion of
great minds. Some have written of the magnitude of
the importance of literature. Amy Lowell, an Ameri-
can poet, captured the concept when she said, “Books
are more than books. They are the life, the very heart
and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and
worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their
lives.” Others have spoken of their personal obsession
with books, as in Thomas Jefferson’s simple statement:
“I live for books.” But more compelling, perhaps, is
˘ Who Wrote that?

the almost instinctive excitement in children for books

and stories.
Throughout my years at First Book, I have heard truly
extraordinary stories about the power of books in the lives
of children. In one case, a homeless child, who had been
bounced from one location to another, later resurfaced —
and the only possession that he had fought to keep was
the book he was given as part of a First Book distribution
months earlier. More recently, I met a child who, upon
receiving the book he wanted, flashed a big smile and
said, “This is my big chance!” These snapshots reveal
the true power of books and stories to give hope and
change lives.
As these children grow up and continue to develop their
love of reading, they will owe a profound debt to those
volunteers who reached out to them — a debt that they
may repay by reaching out to spark the next generation of
readers. But there is a greater debt owed by all of us — a
debt to the storytellers, the authors, who have bound us
together, inspired our leaders, fueled our civilizations, and
helped us put our children to sleep with their heads full of
images and ideas.
Who Wrote That ? is a series of books dedicated to
introducing us to a few of these incredible individuals.
While we have almost always honored stories, we have not
uniformly honored storytellers. In fact, some of the most
important authors have toiled in complete obscurity
throughout their lives or have been openly persecuted for
the uncomfortable truths that they have laid before us.
When confronted with the magnitude of their written work
or perhaps the daily grind of our own, we can forget that
writers are people. They struggle through the same daily
indignities and dental appointments, and they experience
 Foreword ˘

the intense joy and bottomless despair that many of us do.

Yet somehow they rise above it all to deliver a powerful
thread that connects us all. It is a rare honor to have the
opportunity that these books provide to share the lives of
these extraordinary people. Enjoy.
Science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton on November 30,
1999, among the books of the High Hallack Genre Writers Research
and Reference Library, which she established, in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. Norton began writing her first novel as a teenager and
completed her last at age 93.
 1
Blessed Breaks and
Great Depressions
Study hall can be boring. It can be even worse for high-
school seniors—sometimes during the last year of school it can
be hard to concentrate on anything. A world of possibilities is
just months away; college plans and the future can be distract-
ing. During her senior year, Alice Norton came up with a solu-
tion. She wrote a novel.
“I started writing in high school, when I was on the staff of
the school paper,” she explained in a 1996 interview. “As the
editor of the literary page, I had to write short stories. And, in
study hall I began to write my first book.”1
That novel, Ralestone Luck, told the story of a family’s sword,
“The Luck,” and the three siblings, Rupert, Richanda, and
11
12 andre norton

Valerius Ralestone, who seek it in hopes of restoring their

fortunes. Completing it during her senior year was just part
of her effort to become a writer: She also served as editor of
the class yearbook for seniors and wrote mystery stories and
movie reviews for her Cleveland, Ohio high-school news-
paper, the Collingwood Spotlight. This latter position meant
more to her than editing her fellow students’ work. It was
also an apprenticeship for a professional career under Sylvia
Cochran’s careful guidance. Decades later, Norton praised
Cochran’s influence, telling interviewer J.M. Cornwall, “I
had a very fine journalist teacher who was most encouraging.
Out of the staff of the paper at that time came five professional
writers.” In the beginning, Alice was not one of them.2
After high-school graduation, she enrolled in Cleveland’s
Flora Stone Mather College at Western Reserve University

Did you know...

Although Alice Norton’s first novel would
not be published until she was in her twen-
ties, she began writing it as a teenager.
Other famous books written by teens
include Joyce Maynard’s An Eighteen Year
Old Looks Back on Life, S.E. Hinton’s The
Outsiders, and Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus
Girl. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when
she was 19, while Christopher Paolini began
the novel Eragon at just 15 years old.*
* Randy Dotinga, “When the very young write that
first big book,” Christian Science Monitor, July 25,
2005. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0725/
p12s01-bogn.html.
 Blessed Breaks and Great Depressions 13

(now Case Western Reserve University). It was 1930. She

hoped to become a history teacher when she completed her
bachelor’s degree. Looking back, she told John L. Coker III,
“It is absolutely necessary for aspiring writers to prepare
themselves for a job, because it may be five or ten years
before you can make advances big enough to live on.” 3
Earning a degree and becoming a history teacher seemed
like the safest choice. Unfortunately, in 1930, there were no
safe choices.
On October 24, 1929, stock prices in the United States
collapsed. The market did not recover quickly from the day
called “Black Thursday.” Instead, by 1932, the market had
declined nearly 90 percent from its peak value. In the days
and weeks that followed the “Crash of ’29,” banks failed,
companies went out of business, and millions of people
lost their jobs. Alice’s father, Adalbert Freely Norton,
was a salesman at a time when few people wanted to buy
anything.
After less than a year of college, Alice dropped out. It
could have been a devastating decision. Instead, she was
twice blessed. First, she landed steady work, when half
of the adults in her city who wanted jobs could not find
them. Second, the job was at the Cleveland Public Library.
Soon after she began working there, Alice was promoted to
children’s librarian.
It was the perfect job for the future author. “Each month
the librarians would receive a book to review,” she later
told Tangent, a science fiction review magazine. “If there
was some objection to the book, and we still wanted it, we
would have an opportunity to defend it. I remember get-
ting The Hobbit and nobody had heard of [J.R.R.] Tolkien,
so I had to argue for it like mad. Another book that they
14 andre norton

absolutely refused to put in because of the title was John

W. Campbell’s The Moon is Hell. During my twenty-two
years at the library I worked in all but two of the forty-seven
branches.”4
Reading so many books for young people inspired her to
write one of her own, an adventure tale called The Prince
Commands. Dedicated to John, a young boy who suggested
a book “of sword fights and impossible things,” it was a
story Norton described as an “imaginary tale of Courts and
Castles, Crown Princes and Communists. The telling of it
was not of days or weeks, but in months.”5
She worked on it at night, partly in a series of writing
courses. She later said that she “took every writing course
offered” at Case Western.6

Selling Her First Novel

After so much preparation, the author enjoyed a bit of a
blessing. The path to becoming a published novelist was a
bit simpler in the 1930s than today; as Norton pointed out,
“During those early days, agents were really unknown.”
Instead of spending considerable time researching the best
home for her novel or trying to develop a connection within
a publishing house, she took an easier approach: “[W]hen
I was ready to submit my first novel, I got an alphabetized
list of publishers and sent it to the first name on the list, and
they accepted it.” 7
There was only one problem: Her editor at Appleton
Century believed the novel’s primarily male audience
would refuse to read a book written by someone named
Alice. Norton was not offended; she came up with the
name Andre, a “properly ambiguous either-sex name to be
worn by a female who makes her living writing adventure
stories.”8
 Blessed Breaks and Great Depressions 15

As Andre Norton, she embarked on her own adventures.

She would write spy novels inspired by real-life tales of
espionage during World War II she had unearthed. She
crafted science-fiction novels at a time when the United
States was competing to be the first country to reach the
Moon and Americans dreamed of life on distant planets.
During nearly a century of life, she wrote more than 150
novels—a remarkable body of work that continues to be
enjoyed by old and new fans alike.
Andre Norton was born Alice Norton in 1912. Here, Norton’s sister
Mildred, who was 17 years old when the future author was born, holds
one-month-old Alice.
 2
Lifetime Habits
“My family history in America begins in 1634,” Andre
Norton explained to an interviewer. “[W]e are the last of
the Eastern Branch of the Norton family line.”1 Her family
arrived the same year Maryland was founded, 14 years after
the Plymouth colony was established in what would be Mas-
sachusetts. The 1600s were hard times for colonists coming to
the Americas.
“Wednesday, the sixth of September, we loosed from Plym-
outh,” recounted colonist William Bradford in November 1620.
[A]fter many difficulties in boisterous storms, at length, by God’s
providence, upon the ninth of November following, by break of day

17
18 andre norton

we espied land which was deemed to be Cape Cod, and so after-

ward it proved.€.€.€. It caused us to rejoice together, and praise
God that had given us once again to see land.2

During the seventeenth century, abandoning Europe’s

safety for America’s freedom was a risky venture. Trans-
atlantic crossings were dangerous, and many ships did not
survive the voyage. Passengers endured cold, hunger, and
disease; those who completed the journey often suffered the
same deprivations on shore.
The French were the first Europeans to explore Norton’s
home state of Ohio. The British contested French claims to
the territory during the French and Indian War (1754–1763).
A decade later, American colonists fought the British for
the same territory during the American Revolution (1775–
1783). To early Americans, Ohio was “the West.” It offered
adventure on land claimed by several Native American
tribes, including the Shawnee and the Delaware.
Following the Revolutionary War, the Northwest Ter-
ritory was established in 1787. The next year the city of
Marietta, Ohio, was founded. This was the first perma-
nent settlement that represented a foothold opposing the
territorial claims of Native Americans. Wars were waged
between the tribes and the U.S. military for nearly three
decades. According to Authors and Artists for Young
Adults, “One of Norton’s maternal great-grandmothers
was Wyandot Indian, her great-grandfather having been
the first white person to legally marry an Indian in what
later was to become the state of Ohio.” 3

A Childhood of Books
The Ohio that Alice Mary Norton was born into on Feb-
ruary 17, 1912, was one far less wild than the one her
 Lifetime Habits 19

ancestors had settled. Her parents, Bertha Stemm Norton

and Adalbert Freely Norton, enjoyed reading to her as a
child. In fact, the future writer’s earliest memories were
of books. “Mother started reading to me when I was two
years old,” she told interviewer John L. Coker III. “By the
time I was four, she was reading Little Women and I could
follow.” 4
Little Women was a complex novel for a preschooler. On
her own, Alice Norton attempted to comprehend traditional
children’s books like the Uncle Wiggly series. Those books
helped her to learn to read. The books her mother read to
her—including Little Women—helped her to dream.
Born in 1832, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women’s author,
was the daughter of a teacher and his wife. Her parents were
friends with famous writers such as Henry David Thoreau
and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her father, however, was not
nearly as successful as his noted friends. By her late teens,
Alcott was working a series of odd jobs to help out. It was
not her labor, but her stories that pulled the family from
poverty. Flower Fables was published while she was in her
early twenties; although the novel was not a big seller, it did
start her career.
In the 1860s, Alcott’s publisher asked for a “girl’s story.”
She provided one. The story of aspiring writer Jo and her
sisters, Little Women’s initial printing sold out quickly in
1868. That book and its sequels made author Louisa May
Alcott one of the most successful female novelists of the
nineteenth century.
In grade school, Norton also discovered the alternate
fantasy world created by L. Frank Baum in his Oz series.
Published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first
novel in the series, provided her entry into an imaginative
20 andre norton

Andre Norton at 22 months old in December 1913. Raised in a

family that loved reading, Norton learned to appreciate sophisti-
cated stories as a preschooler.
 Lifetime Habits 21

universe created by an author. Baum claimed the series was

a response to scary stories he heard as a child. “I demanded
fairy stories when I was a youngster, and I was a critical
reader too,” he said in a 1904 interview with the Phila-
delphia North American. “One thing I didn’t like was the
introduction of witches and goblins into the story. I didn’t
like the little dwarfs in the woods bobbing up with their
horrors.
“That’s why you’ll never find anything in my fairy tales
which frightens a child. I remember my own feelings well
enough to determine that I never would be responsible for
a child’s nightmare.”5
Baum’s Oz series offered an author’s vision for witches
and goblins. While enjoying the books, young Alice was
also becoming a critical reader. Without realizing it, she
began looking at books as more than entertaining escapes
and started examining an author’s intentions. Decades later,
thinking about the way certain novels affected her, Norton
could easily recall the stories she was drawn to the most:
“I enjoyed reading adventure stories such as those written
by Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb. I remember The Little
Princess and The Secret Garden, books that are still worth
reading today.”6
Alice’s parents had traditional lives. The idea of their
daughter becoming a writer may have seemed completely
foreign. They were readers, however, and growing up sur-
rounded by books and people who loved them was ideal
preparation for a writer. “My family was book-minded,”
Alice recalled, “and there were always books in the house.
My grandmother on my father’s side was considered an
oddity because she read a lot. We made it a point as a
family to go once a week to the public library.”7 Today,
22 andre norton

During her childhood, Andre Norton loved to read the popular

science-fiction magazines of the era. Pictured here, the cover of
the October 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories, a magazine
edited by Hugo Gernsback.
 Lifetime Habits 23

some people find television and the Internet more enter-

taining than typed words on bound paper. In the 1920s,
Alice’s classmates were enthralled by movies and the new
medium of radio. Films were silent, while radio offered
dramas and adventure stories without images.
Alice loved good stories, not just in books but in maga-
zines as well. “I would buy Thrilling Wonder Stories, Planet
Stories, Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, and others,”
she admitted to an interviewer. “This was in the days when
one had to hide these types of magazines, because they were
considered by some to be so trashy that a person would not
want to be seen in public with them.”8
Amazing Stories Magazine, begun in 1926, was the first
magazine devoted completely to science-fiction stories.
Creator Hugo Gernsback coined the term “scientifiction,”
which later became known as “science fiction,” “sci-fi,” or
just “sf.”
Magazines like Amazing Stories featured fledgling
science-fiction writers like C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett,
Edmond Hamilton, Eric Frank Russell, and many others.
These magazines were popular two decades before sci-
ence fiction’s golden age, which most fans consider to have
occurred in the 1940s and 1950s.
Norton was in her twenties when she first read C.L.
Moore’s short stories. The author became particularly inter-
esting to Norton once she realized that C.L. Moore was a
pen name for Indianapolis writer Catherine Moore. The two
were close in age; Moore was in her early twenties when
her first published story appeared in a 1933 issue of Weird
Tales. According to James Gunn in The Science of Science
Fiction Writing, Moore “expanded the techniques prevalent
in the mainstream .€.€. to include the vast cultural tradition
24 andre norton

outside science fiction.”9 Drawing on the tradition of writ-

ers like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, Moore applied
“classical references to myth, legend and literature.”10 Mar-
ried in 1940 to fellow science-fiction writer Henry Kuttner,
the couple published stories under 17 different names over
the next 10 years.

Comfortable Being Alone

Because her elder sister was 17 years old when Alice was
born, Alice’s life resembled that of an only child. She gen-
erally enjoyed her parents’ undivided attention. They spoke
to her more as an adult than as a child. Growing up, she
usually felt more comfortable with her parents’ friends than
with kids her own age.
Without brothers or sisters at home or close friends at
school, Alice spent a great deal of time by herself. She may
have been lonesome at times, but being comfortable being
alone is good training for a writer. After all, writers have to
be by themselves a good bit of their career. Novelists spend
much of their lives with only their imagination and their
words for company.
“Science fiction readers tend to be loners, with vivid
imaginations,” Norton once explained to the New York
Times. She could have been describing science-fiction writ-
ers as well as readers when she said that, “They’re people
who often don’t fit in, but they usually have a good bit of
intellectual ability.”11

Finding Her Voice

Alice Norton’s high-school experience was a positive one,
owing mainly to the efforts of a single teacher. Collingwood
 Lifetime Habits 25

High School’s creative writing teacher, Sylvia Cochran, did

not treat her students as isolated dreamers but as future
professionals. Under Cochran’s guidance, Alice learned the
fundamentals of fiction writing. She applied those lessons,
and later dedicated her novel Moonsinger to her old teacher:
“To Sylvia Cochran who guided so many ‘infant’ pens.”12
Although an avid reader for at least a decade, Norton
views her senior year as the time she became a serious
writer. Sylvia Cochran provided the foundation, Bertha
Norton the inspiration. During study halls, Alice labored on
her first novel. She may have been a fan of science fiction,
but Ralestone Luck was based on history—something she
was sure her mother would like.
Bertha Norton had a good explanation for her love of
American history: Growing up, she heard numerous stories
detailing her family’s place in it. “It is unfortunate that
my mother’s history has never been documented,” Norton
said. “Mother’s mother had three brothers who had served
in the Civil War and her fiancé was killed in the Battle of
Gettysburg.”13
For Alice, history was more than a school subject. It was
a series of events that radically affected the lives of family
members only two generations removed. Alice did not want
to write fiction detailing battles and famous heroes, “the
history of dates, of sweeps and empires—but the kind of
history which deals with daily life, the beliefs and aspira-
tions of people long since dust.”14
The challenges of life in the South during Civil War
exploded in popular culture with the publication of
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind in 1936. Alice
began Ralestone Luck in 1929, but it was not published
26 andre norton

for another decade. Mitchell’s novel probably influenced

Norton’s; both feature depictions of once-wealthy gentry
who are forced to survive in a rundown former plantation
home, helped along by servants who were once slaves.
Mitchell’s novel earned the Pulitzer Prize and was
made into a movie in 1939. Adjusted for inflation (ticket
prices in the 1930s were less than 10 percent what they
are today), Gone with the Wind remains the highest-
grossing movie of all time. According to the box office
ranking site, boxofficemojo.com, in 2007 dollars its earn-
ings would be nearly $1.5 billion in the United States
alone.15 The movie and the book remain popular with
many people as the story and its characters continue to
attract new fans.
Mitchell later said of Gone With the Wind:
If the novel has a theme, it is that of survival. What makes
some people able to go through catastrophes and others,
apparently just as able, strong and brave, go under. It hap-
pens in every upheaval. Some people survive; others don’t.
What qualities are in those who fight their way through
triumphantly that are lacking in those who go under? I only
know that the survivors used to call that quality, “gump-
tion.” So I wrote about people with gumption and people
who didn’t.16

Like Gone with the Wind’s main character, Scarlett

O’Hara, the characters of Norton’s novel had gumption.
Ralestone Luck is an adventure story told from Valerius
Ralestone’s point of view. Val, as he is known, is the
18-year-old middle child of the family, and along with
27-year-old Rupert and their sister, 17-year-old Richanda,
 Lifetime Habits 27

Did you know...

Like many books written long ago,
Ralestone Luck is in the “public domain.”
This means that anyone can copy it
and distribute it without paying money
to the author or original publisher.
According to The Copyeditor’s Handbook,
“In general, works published before
1978 remain under copyright for
ninety-five years after the date of
publication; works published after
1978, when U.S. copyright law was
revised, remain under copyright for
seventy years after the death of the
author.”*
Copyrighted works produced
between 1923 and 1964, however,
had to have their copyright renewed
during their twenty-eighth year in order
to maintain their copyright for the full
95-year term. Since many publishers
(and authors) for one reason or
another did not do this, numerous
works lost their copyright protection.
Ralestone Luck and several other Nor-
ton novels can be read or downloaded
for free at: http://www.gutenberg.org/
browse/authors/n#a7021.
* Amy Einsohn, “Language Editing: Beyond
Grammar,” The Copyeditor’s Handbook. Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2006,
p. 419.
28 andre norton

relocate to the single property they still own: a large

plantation home in Louisiana. Having been raised apart,
the three endure everything from hurricanes and ghosts
to greedy, fraudulent claims from false relations. Despite
numerous obstacles, the trio sticks together in their quest
for the sword that will prove they are the property’s right-
ful owners.
While its depiction of African Americans is dated,
the equitable manner the Ralestones treated everyone,
regardless of race, class, or wealth, transcends the time
in which Norton wrote her novel. This ability to judge
an individual based solely on his or her character would
become a hallmark of Norton’s fiction. Writing Ralestone
when racial segregation was still legal made Norton ahead
of her time.
Its 10-year gestation period, along with the challenges
Norton faced before it was published, may have inspired
her to make her character Rupert an author. In the novel he
admits that “writing is more or less like the drug habit.€.€.€.€.
I’ve told stories all my life, and I found myself tied to the
typewriter in spite of my disappointment.”17
By the time she graduated from Collingwood in 1930,
Alice Norton may have felt the same way, having already
completed a novel and numerous short stories. Yet at 18,
she was practical. She may have seen writing as a drug
habit, but habits have to be supported. She needed to make
a living. Writers can spend years—even decades—work-
ing at their craft before they earn enough to do this.
Accepted into Western Reserve’s Flora Stone Mather
College (today known as Case Western Reserve Univer-
sity) in Cleveland, Norton planned to major in history.
After she earned her degree, she could teach. It seemed
 Lifetime Habits 29

like a sensible career plan. At other times, it might well

have been, but in 1930, even the safest career plans were
no longer reliable.
World War I brought the United States into major action on the world scene
for the first time. Officially neutral until April 1917, America supplied food
and munitions to Britain and France. In the spring of 1918, U.S. troops were
decisive in smashing the Germans’ last big offensive on the Western front.
 3
Norton Luck
During the four long years it was fought, it was known
as the Great War. Great because of its awesome destructiveness.
Great because of the technological advances enabling opposing
armies to render horrific casualties on the battlefield. Great
because of the swath of land destroyed across Europe. It was
also known by another name. It was called “The War to End
All Wars.” Many believed the conflict’s terrific consequences
would prevent nations from ever waging war on such a scale
again. This was, unfortunately, too optimistic. Today the war is
referred to by one simple name: World War I.

31
32 andre norton

Following the armistice, or truce, of November 11, 1918,

the victorious Allied nations imposed heavy sanctions on
Germany, considered the aggressor in the conflict and the
loser afterward. Millions of soldiers brought home more
than just war stories to their friends and family. They also
brought home a virus so deadly, even nine decades later a
cure is uncertain.
Instead of postwar victory celebrations at the end of
World War I, people around the world spent much of
1918 and 1919 fighting the disease known as Spanish flu,
which killed an estimated 20 million to 40 million people
worldwide. In the United States, the virus claimed 675,000
lives—more than six times as many Americans as were
killed in the war. Unlike most flu strains that typically kill
the very old and the very young, this flu’s fatality was con-
centrated in the young. The death rate was 20 times higher
for 15 to 34-year-olds than any other flu. In the year’s final
edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association,
its editors wrote:
The [year] 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termina-
tion of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race:
a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man’s
destruction of man: unfortunately a year in which developed a
most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of
thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-
half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and
keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to
combating the greatest enemy of all—infectious disease.1

Communities tried everything to keep the flu from

spreading, from mandating masks to prevent transmission
to prohibiting large public gatherings. Although the dis-
ease infected more than a quarter of the country, including
 Norton Luck 33

Andre Norton with her parents, Bertha and Adalbert Norton, on

Labor Day€in 1921. Like much of the country, Norton’s family
prospered during the Roaring Twenties.
34 andre norton

President Woodrow Wilson, by the end of the summer of

1919 (considered the third wave of the virus) it was over.
Thus the nation entered the 1920s with a seasoned survi-
vor’s optimism.
Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency in 1922, prom-
ising lowered spending and reduced taxes. He did not dis-
appoint. By the end of his second term, most Americans
no longer paid federal taxes at all. As Coolidge noted in
December 1927, “Exemptions have been increased until 115
million people make out but 2.5 million individual taxable
returns.”2 In other words, only 2.5 million people had to pay
federal taxes.
Many changes were in store for the 1920s; in 1919, the
Eighteenth Amendment supporting Prohibition had passed,
making it illegal to sell alcohol. Forty-two years after being
introduced in Congress, the Nineteenth Amendment passed
in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. Although the
new amendments could not have seemed more different,
they worked hand-in-hand to create an America far differ-
ent than the one that had sacrificed through the war and the
Spanish flu.
Prohibition did not stop alcohol from being sold. Instead,
its sale went underground. Illegal bars called speakeasies
flourished, offering cold drinks and hot jazz—the latest
music craze. Women celebrated their newfound freedom
not just by voting, but also by participating in traditionally
male activities, from smoking cigarettes to staying out all
night at dance clubs. The corset, a confining undergar-
ment, was abandoned for slips. Women took to wearing
loose dresses that “flapped” as they danced. The “flapper”
was born.
This is the world in which Alice Norton grew up. Still a
teenager as the 1920s faded, she came of age during a time
 Norton Luck 35

when some women were pursuing their dreams without

relying on a husband’s financial support. A 1928 best seller,
Coming of Age in Samoa, written by Margaret Mead, told
the nonfiction experiences of young women in an isolated
community. The trailblazing author was in her late twen-
ties and one of the decade’s most celebrated women. Yet
the year after the book was published, the high-spirited
optimism of an age in which anything seemed possible
vanished in a day of losses.

Stock Market Speculation

Like Internet stocks in the late 1990s, radio stocks com-
manded the public’s attention in the 1920s. Stocks were
often purchased on margin: borrowed money. If the stock
went up, the investor profited. If the stock dropped sharply,
however, the investor faced a “margin call.” At the trading
day’s conclusion, the money had to be paid back. As long
as stocks kept increasing in price, investors made money.
Stocks, however, do not always increase in price. By
1929, the margin call for the entire stock market was fast
approaching.
Joseph Kennedy, the wealthy patriarch of the Ken-
nedy political family, began getting stock tips in the late
1920s from his shoeshine boy. Instead of buying, accord-
ing to some biographers, Kennedy told his broker to sell
everything. It was good timing. “He figured that when
the shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too popular
for its own good,” explained John Rothchild in Fortune
magazine. Bernard Baruch, an investor during the 1920s,
remembered:

Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The shoeshine boy could
give you a summary of the day’s financial news as he worked
36 andre norton

Andre Norton, at left, is pictured with her sister Mildred in 1925,

a few years before she began her undergraduate studies at Case
Western.

with rag and polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled

the street in front of my office now gave me tips and, I sup-
pose, spent the money I and others gave him in the market.
My cook had a brokerage account and followed the ticker
closely. Her paper profits were quickly blown away in the
gale of 1929.3
 Norton Luck 37

More investors were like the cook than Kennedy. Too

many people investing too much borrowed money dis-
torted the true value of the stocks. A market bubble was
born. The bubble did not just burst on October 29, 1929;
it exploded.
The decline in stock values affected nearly every indus-
try across the globe. Ohio was one of the country’s main
manufacturing centers, home to industrial suppliers like
Akron’s B.F. Goodrich’s tire company and Cleveland’s
Standard Oil. With so many companies failing, suppliers
had fewer buyers. According to The Cambridge History of
American Literature:
Between 1930 and 1933, 9000 banks closed their doors or
went bankrupt; 9 million savings accounts were lost. National
income was cut in half; manufacturing was down by half, and
in some industries the situation was even worse (e.g. the steel
industry operated at about 10 percent of its capacity).€.€.€.
Work was nearly impossible to find. Between 1929 and
1932, a weekly average of 100,000 persons lost their jobs.€.€.€.
By 1933, 15 million Americans (one third of the labor force)
were unemployed. Throughout the 1930s, unemployment was
always about 20 percent, never below 15 percent.€.€.€. The
unemployment rate in cities was very high (e.g. 50 percent in
Cleveland, Ohio). 4

At Case Western
Alice Norton began her freshman year at Case Western in
the fall of 1930, in the aftermath of the crash of 1929. It was
the same year that Case Western’s “College for Women
was named Flora Stone Mather College,” according to the
university’s Web site. Begun in 1888 as the College for
Women of Western Reserve University, it was established
38 andre norton

as women sought a higher education after men complained

about sharing classes with the opposite sex. Established as
a separate school, it benefited from the donations of Flora
Stone Mather, the wife of the man dubbed Cleveland’s
“first citizen,” Samuel Mather. She was also the daughter
of Amasa Stone, who established Western Reserve Univer-
sity.5 The renaming “has met with universal satisfaction,”
according to Dean Helen Mary Smith, “and no fonder hope
could be entertained than that the college should express
in itself, in its students and in its graduates, the wisdom,
graciousness and understanding that characterized Ms.
Mather.”6
Although she enjoyed her studies, Alice Norton’s time at
the college was quite brief. Having enrolled less than a year
after the crash, she could scarcely ignore its impact. Cleve-
land was among the worst hit cities in the country. There,
and across the nation, men and women stood in food lines
and waited at soup kitchens. Unemployment kept rising.
Those who were still employed or running businesses often
earned less than they had before the crash.
Adalbert Norton owned a rug business. In 1930, most
people were worried more about keeping a roof over their
heads than placing coverings on their floors. He could no
longer afford Alice’s $300 annual tuition. Alice Norton
dropped out. Although she would take numerous writing
courses throughout her life, she never earned a degree.

“Juvenile” Literature
Since Norton had always loved libraries, it was natural that
she would apply for a job in one. Although millions were
out of work, Norton was one of the fortunate few to find
employment. Libraries did not require the advanced degrees
that most demand today. Norton was not the only lucky one.
 Norton Luck 39

The Cleveland Public Library system gained as well by tak-

ing a chance on a 19-year-old who had only a high-school
diploma. “I was the children’s librarian at the Cleveland
Public Library for over twenty years from 1930–1951,” she
later told an interviewer.7
Working as a children’s librarian was the perfect job for an
aspiring writer. As part of her job, she had to review dozens
of books for younger readers in every category, from clas-
sics to genres like adventure, science fiction, and fantasy.
Perhaps more important, she learned what her patrons were
reading. During her time at the library, she also witnessed
the evolution of young-adult fiction, a category publishers
created in the mid-twentieth century. Prior to that, books
for teens and preteens were usually called “juveniles.” In
the nineteenth century, the distinction between teens and
adults was far less clear than it is today. In the 1800s, chil-
dren went to work in farms and factories when they reached
their teens and were treated as adults.
Only the children of the wealthy and a few lucky ones
who excelled in school continued their education past the
eighth grade. Books for children were designed to improve
their reading ability and moral character. They were not
meant to be read for enjoyment. Novels intended as enter-
taining diversions were almost exclusively published for
adults.
One such author of the era’s juvenile literature was Jacob
Abott, who “was an ordained minister, professor of Math-
ematics and Natural Philosophy at Amherst [Massachu-
setts], founder of a girl’s school and author of a long list of
children’s books,” explains one study of juvenile literature.
“He treated children’s books as a means of educating chil-
dren gently, and of raising them to hold Christian values.”8
Another successful author of the period, Martha Finley,
40 andre norton

created Elsie Dinsmore, who “grew up, had children and

passed on the role of protagonist to her daughter. Elsie’s
faith plays a large role in her life, giving the author an
opportunity to express Christian values and ethics.” 9
Starting in the early twentieth century, teenagers, like
Norton, began attending high school and colleges in ever-
increasing numbers. They also began searching for books
with main characters their own age and experiences to
which they could relate. Publishers rushed to fill this

Did you know...

Published in 1911, author Frances “Eliza”
Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden is
often cited by authors of young-adult nov-
els like The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and A
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson.
For them and for many others, The Secret
Garden was an early inspiration. According
to the St. James Guide to Children’s Writers,
the work is significant because it “was a
book of the new, the 20th century. Far from
encouraging the attitudes instilled in Fran-
ces as a child (‘speak when you’re spoken
to, come when you’re called...’), it suggested
children should be self-reliant and have faith
in themselves, that they should listen, not
to their elders and betters, but to their own
hearts and consciences.”*
* “Frances (Eliza) Hodgson Burnett,” St. James
Guide to Children’s Writers, 5th ed. St. James Press,
1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.
 Norton Luck 41

demand. The books that enchanted young Alice Norton

like The Wizard of Oz and The Secret Garden enthralled
generations. For Norton, those early books opened the first
passageway to imaginative fiction in which the situations
might be fantastic but the emotions were realistic.
The market for young-adult or “juvenile” books exploded
in the 1930s, at the same time as Norton began work as a
librarian. Crafted by a pool of anonymous writers but pub-
lished under a single made-up author’s name, novels in the
Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series fed young people’s need
for escapism, just as stories like Edgar Rice Burroughs’s
Tarzan did for adults.
Norton did not just read books written for young adults.
She met their readers. Every day youths entered the chil-
dren’s section. Some went immediately to their favorite
authors, while others browsed. A few approached the petite
librarian just a few years older than they were and asked
for recommendations. They confessed what they loved and
what they hated. Sometimes they described the books they
wish were published. Norton listened.

Inspiration
Soon after she began working at the Cleveland Public
Library, a young boy named John asked her for a story.
As she later explained in the introduction to the novel he
inspired, The Prince Commands, he “begged a story of me.
It was to be of ‘sword fights and impossible things.’ I com-
plied as best I could.”10
John’s request motivated the aspiring novelist. She set
aside three finished manuscripts and half-done work. Her
brief time as a history major, and her mother, Bertha’s,
love for the subject, again provided inspiration. Norton
42 andre norton

knew how to research, and she had the resources of the

Cleveland Public Library system at her disposal. Her
mother, as she would for years, read and critiqued her
daughter’s writing .
“But the first requirement for writing heroic or sword and
sorcery fantasy must be a deep interest in and a love for
history itself,” Norton explained in her essay, “On Writing
Fantasy.” Norton had that. “While there are many things we
can readily accept in those delvings into other times, there
are others we must use our imagination to translate.”11
Difficult economic times encourage dreamers. Well-
intentioned parents and teachers frequently warn aspiring
writers, actors, and other artists to pursue more stable
careers. Often they listen, becoming teachers, lawyers, and
other professionals. Sometimes the dream is still pursued
and even achieved. More often than not, it fades, forgotten
until they have children of their own with artistic desires.
In the 1930s, with the economy in tatters, there was no
fallback position for Norton. Although her library schedule
prevented a full-time return to school, she missed the class-
room’s feedback. With a secure job, she no longer needed
to be practical. Norton wanted to be a writer and had little
use for courses not focused on her dream.
From her first months at the library, Norton took every
writing course available at Case Western. As she later
explained to J.M. Cornwell:
The only way to write is to do so. One cannot be taught writ-
ing, but some courses can help one develop technique and
are useful for that reason. Try to see in your mind, if doing
fiction, what might be a movie you are reporting on from the
sidelines. I try always to have my first chapter begin with a
piece of action, which will rivet the reader’s attention. One
 Norton Luck 43

can then go back and, if necessary, relate what caused the

action. One does follow the old what, who, when and where
rule of news reporters in the first chapter, even as they do in
the first paragraph.12

The Prince Commands depicted the journey of an Ameri-

can named Michael Karl after he learns he is heir to the
throne of Morvania. Traveling to the fictional Balkan coun-
try, he discovers it in turmoil. Revolution is brewing. In the
mountains, a werewolf has recruited a legion of subhumans.
Unwilling to abandon his legacy, Karl organizes his own
rival army.
When she completed The Prince Commands, Norton
sent the manuscript to the first name on her list of publish-
ers: Appleton Century, which quickly accepted it on one
condition. The publishers wanted to publish it under a male
pseudonym, or a fictitious author’s name. They did not
believe boys would buy an adventure tale written by some-
one named Alice. She agreed, but took it one step further.
Most writers who publish under pseudonyms retain their
birth names. However, she had her name legally changed to
Andre Norton when The Prince Commands was published
in 1934. By that name her work, and her life, would be rec-
ognized. But it would be some time before she got there.
Andre Norton in 1932, two years after leaving Case Western and two years
before publishing her first novel, The Prince Commands.
 4
Spies Like Us
As a novelist, the 1930s were unproductive for Andre
Norton. After The Prince Commands, she published only one
other novel—the one she had finished in high school. Ralestone
Luck shared a Southern accent with the 1936 bestseller, Gone
With the Wind. By 1940, Norton may have been wondering if
she would share the author’s fate as well. Although Margaret
Mitchell lived for more than a decade after Gone With The
Wind’s publication, she never wrote another novel.
In his book On Writing, prolific author Stephen King dis-
cussed authors who wrote only one or two novels. “I always
wonder two things about these folks: how long did it take them

45
46 Andre Norton

to write the books they did write, and what did they do the
rest of the time? Knit afghans? Organize church bazaars?
.€.€. If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s
name wouldn’t you do it?”1
In 1940, it was still an unanswered question whether Nor-
ton’s writing career would resemble King’s or Mitchell’s.
An ocean away, events were taking place that would affect
the lives of hundreds of millions. They would also inspire
Norton’s first commercial success.

The Coming of World War II

After the horrors of World War I and the scarcities of the
Great Depression, few Americans were interested in Euro-
pean affairs or the continent’s simmering conflicts. Defeated
Germany had surrendered in 1918 in part to avoid the type
of working-class revolution that transformed Russia into a
Communist state the year before. When the country signed
the Armistice peace treaty on November 11, 1918, more
than two million German soldiers had been killed.
Under the terms of its surrender, Germany was required to
compensate the countries it had attacked. These debts were
enormous. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles also reduced Ger-
many’s territorial size and those lands returned to the control
of other nations as Poland, Hungary, and Austria became
separate countries. Paying the costs from WWI coupled with
a damaging economic policy created incredible inflation
in Germany. While the 1920s roared in the United States,
conditions in Germany were more along the lines of a great
depression. Such conditions caused considerable resentment
among the German people, especially in one World War I
veteran, a failed painter named Adolf Hitler.
In 1923, Hitler led the unsuccessful Munich Beer Hall
Putsch to take over the government in the German province
 Spies Like Us 47

of Bavaria and then march on Berlin, hoping to overthrow

the national government. Imprisoned for nine months for his
role in the uprising, Hitler spent his sentence writing a book,
Mein Kampf (German for My Struggle). Equal parts autobi-
ography and an attack on Jews, whom Hitler falsely blamed
for many of Germany’s problems, Mein Kampf imagined a
reunited Germany and Austria bonded through their ties as
Aryans—a “super race” of blue-eyed blonds whom the dark-
haired Hitler believed were superior to all other peoples.
After his release, Hitler campaigned with the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party—better recognized in
English as the Nazi Party. Besides blaming the Jews for
Germany’s problems, the party promised to lower prices
and increase employment. Its message found millions of
eager listeners. In 1933, it won the majority of seats in the
Reichstag (the German parliament similar to the U.S. Con-
gress). The next year, German President Paul von Hinden-
burg appointed Hitler chancellor of Germany. A few weeks
later fire leveled the Reichstag. The arsonists were never
captured, but many believed the Nazis were responsible.
Following the blaze, the Nazi-led government granted
Hitler emergency powers. He restricted freedom of speech,
press, and assembly. He imprisoned anyone who opposed
him. The free movement of Jewish people was seriously
curtailed. Hitler’s “Final Solution” involved the execution
of any non-Aryans—not only Jews but also the gypsies,
the disabled, and numerous others. Over six million Jews
would be killed, along with millions of others in Hitler’s
death camps. Millions more would die in the war that Hitler
would unleash in 1939.
Germany’s return to its place as a world power required
renewed military might. Devastated by World War I and
radically altered by the Treaty of Versailles and subsequent
48 Andre Norton

treaties, the German military went into overdrive. It trained

in Blitzkrieg or “lightning war.” Hitler’s army at first
annexed territories Hitler believed that rightly belonged
to Germany. Finally, after Hitler’s army invaded Poland in
September 1939, the Allied nations of England and France
declared war on Hitler.
In a single day—May 10, 1940—Hitler’s lightning war
crushed the opposing armies of Belgium, France, and Hol-
land. While the first two countries endured everything
from savaged Jewish temples to immediate military rule
under puppet governments, Hitler treated the non-Jewish
Dutch citizens of Holland quite differently. He believed they
were of a pure Aryan background, and thus better suited
for becoming part of a greater German empire. He allowed
civilian leaders to remain in their positions. Anticipating the
types of horrors they had heard about in Poland, the Dutch
were surprised by the relatively uneventful transition.
Hitler’s treatment of Dutch Jews, however, was horrific.
When Hitler invaded, Holland was home to some 140,000
Jews. By the war’s end, more than 100,000 had been
deported and fewer than 6,000 survived. Some 30,000 sur-
vived by going into hiding.
Resistance was difficult. The land was flat and densely
populated, with few areas for partisans to wage attacks.
Instead, the Dutch resisted Hitler by espionage. The secret
lives of Dutch spies would soon inspire a story in Andre
Norton, who at the time of Hitler’s invasion of Holland
had left her home in Cleveland. She planned to pursue new
dreams in Maryland and in the nation’s capital.

Changing Careers
Columnist Peggy Noonan recalls the advice she once
received “by a writer who said, ‘Never feel guilty about
 Spies Like Us 49

A small boat rescues a USS West Virginia crewman from the water
after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7,
1941, the attack that brought the United States into World War II. The
mast of the USS Tennessee is beyond the burning USS West Virginia.

reading, it’s what you do to do your job.’ If he hadn’t said it,

I don’t know if I’d read less, or read guiltily, but I’m grateful
I haven’t had to do either.”2
Not every reader becomes a writer, but all good writers
are avid readers. Norton’s love for books began long before
she became a librarian. After nearly a decade in the Cleve-
land Public Library system, she decided to do more than
just read books or write books. She decided to sell them.
Norton left her job in Ohio to open The Mystery House,
a small bookstore and lending library in Mount Rainer,
Maryland. The location was no accident. It was close to
50 Andre Norton

Washington, D.C., where she also accepted a position with

the Library of Congress.
“Just before the war,” Norton explained in an online
interview with Tangent magazine, “I had an opportunity
as a special librarian on a citizenship project in Washing-
ton D.C. I was to select books on what it was like to be an
American. This was for people who were learning the Eng-
lish language, so books had to be rewritten and simplified
with a limited vocabulary.”3 By then, Norton had a great
deal of experience working in Cleveland’s many ethnic
enclaves. She worked in neighborhood library branches that
catered to Italian, Russian, Jewish, and Chinese residents,
among many others.
Established in 1800 by President John Adams, the
nation’s library held only reference books for Congress
until after the War of 1812. Two years into the conflict,
invading British troops set the building on fire. During
postwar rebuilding, former president Thomas Jefferson
offered the use of his own extensive library. Number-
ing nearly 6,500 volumes, Jefferson’s collection included
books on everything from science to foreign languages to
literature. Jefferson explained in a letter, “I do not know
that it contains any branch of science which Congress
would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in
fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not
have occasion to refer.” 4
Jefferson’s contribution altered the character of the once-
sleepy legislative library, but the institution’s explosive
growth was mainly because of Ainsworth Rand Spofford.
The “Librarian of Congress” helped author the 1870 copy-
right law requiring applicants to submit two copies of their
work. Today, not just books like this one, but films, sound
recordings, maps, and many other documents make up a
 Spies Like Us 51

collection of some 130 million items, including 29 million

catalogued books.
While Norton was settling in with her new responsi-
bilities, more countries entered the war. Although the Axis
powers were devastating Europe, the United States did not
enter the conflict until the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese, Hitler’s allies. The
next day, December 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. A few
days later, Germany declared war on the United States,
bringing America into the European conflict as well.
After Roosevelt’s declaration of war, programs ben-
efiting foreign nationals in the United States were greatly
restricted. As a result, in late 1941, Norton’s job ended.
Unable to rely on the bookstore and her writing as income,
she reluctantly shut the doors on the Mystery House. By
then she had learned the lesson many other writers who
open such establishments quickly discover: Operating a
bookstore has more in common with running a grocery
store than being a novelist.
Fifty years later, another novelist who operated a book-
store had a different experience. When author Larry
McMurtry returned to his hometown in the 1990s, it was
not to write another novel. The Pulitzer Prize winner
planned to open another branch of his bookstore. Beginning
in the late 1980s, Archer City, Texas’s Booked Up bookstore
expanded to several annex buildings holding more than
100,000 volumes. In a 1997 interview, McMurtry admit-
ted, “I just love the possibilities of really big used book
stores—vast repositories of knowledge—and the only hope
of preserving them for another generation is to build one in
a small town.” Besides financing the operation, he priced
books and helped with stock.5
52 Andre Norton

Norton could not surmount her bookstore’s economic

obstacles; McMurtry struggled to keep his business afloat
and stayed open due to public support. He renewed his pas-
sion for fiction after enduring a deep depression following a
heart attack. “The tradition I was born into was essentially
nomadic,” he explained, “a herdsmen tradition, following ani-
mals across the earth. The bookshops are a form of ranching;
instead of herding cattle, I herd books. Writing is a form of
ranching too; I herd words into little paragraphlike clusters.”6

Spies
When she returned to her position at the Cleveland Public
Library, Norton was not empty-handed. At the Library of
Congress, Norton became involved with a group called
the Cleveland Press World Friends Club. The organiza-
tion matched pen pals in the United States and overseas.
Through them she discovered a treasure trove for an adven-
ture writer: a stack of letters from a Dutch spy.

Did you know...

The Cleveland Press World Friends Club
began in the late 1930s, as a way for chil-
dren from different cultures to get to know
each other. While this noble objective was
curtailed by the events of World War II,
such pen pal organizations increased in
popularity afterward. Although the Internet
has altered such connections, writing letters
to be delivered to peers across the globe
still goes on. Organizations like World Pen
Pals in Saugerties, New York, still match
interested students with pen pals from
other countries.
 Spies Like Us 53

Andre Norton reads on the boat deck€of the Amor in 1937. The com-
ing of World War II enabled her to branch out into other genres of fic-
tion, including spy novels.

As an author of two adventure stories for young adults,

Norton could not imagine a profession better suited for her
genre. Still, writing a modern spy story was radically dif-
ferent from penning The Prince Commands and Ralestone
Luck. Her hero would battle the Nazis, an enemy as cur-
rent as the day’s newspaper headlines. This was a risk, in
some ways harder than when she was a first-time novelist.
Unknown authors start with a blank slate; published ones
have a history. Once again, Norton’s timing was perfect.
There are numerous famous examples of spies and spy-
ing throughout literature and history. In Book X of Homer’s
The Iliad, after spying on the Trojans, Odysseus and Dio-
medes capture a Trojan spy whom they later kill. In William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the king laments, “When sorrows
come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”7 In the
54 Andre Norton

Bible, high priests hoping to arrest Jesus bribed Judas Iscar-

iot with 30 pieces of silver to provide information on the
prophet’s movements. During World War I, Britain inter-
cepted coded radio messages from German officials, who
were attempting to enlist Mexico’s assistance, promising
that after victory the country would receive former Mexi-
can territories that had been ceded to the United States. The
decoded messages helped convince President Woodrow
Wilson to commit U.S. troops to the Allies’ cause.
At the time Norton was contemplating her spy novel,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the creation
of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to discover Nazi
plans for destroying U.S. cargo bound for Europe. The next
year, United States endured “the shocking disaster of the
Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941, about which we
had no intelligence warning,” according to former Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) Inspector General Frederick P.
Hitz. After the war, “it was hotly debated as to whether this
was a failure of collection or analysis, but in the end an oth-
erwise skeptical President Truman was convinced that the
United States needed a civilian spy service, and the CIA was
created. This brings us to the era of modern espionage.”8
Superior spy craft was clearly one of the reasons for the
victory of Allied forces in 1945. World War II altered Andre
Norton’s life and her work. Her spy novels of the era, Follow
the Drum and The Sword is Drawn, earned her thousands of
new fans. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biogra-
phy Supplement, The Sword is Drawn “marked a new level
of success for Norton; it was published in the United States
by the major Houghton Mifflin house, and in England by
the even more prestigious Oxford University Press.” From
then on, “she remained equally popular in England and the
United States.” 9
 Spies Like Us 55

Set in 1940, The Sword is Drawn detailed the challenges

faced by Lorens Van Norreys, an heir to a Dutch jewel
business. His efforts to gain the trust of his grandfather and
stop the Nazis take him to England and to the United States.
Van Norreys’ American connection is further strengthened
by his correspondence with a Cleveland schoolboy named
Lawrence—a pen pal in the Cleveland Press World Friends
Club. Besides greater sales, The Sword is Drawn earned
Norton her first significant award, the Plaque of Honor
from the Netherlands in 1946.
Follow the Drum predated, by a decade, popular spy
novels like Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s 1953 best seller
that introduced the world to James Bond, the dapper British
spy. In 1949, Norton completed her spy trilogy with Sword
in Sheath.

Postwar
The war’s conclusion in 1945 brought about changes in
Norton’s fiction as well. A former U.S. ally, the Soviet
Union, occupied regions in Eastern Europe that had been
conquered by Germany, and it showed no signs of allowing
self-government in those nations. Instead of fighting the
Nazis, a new war would be fought against the Soviets, one
that hoped to keep their Communist influence confined to
the places where it already existed.
The Cold War would be fought less with bullets and bombs
than with technology. It would be waged by computers, spy
satellites, and thousands of other intriguing inventions once
imagined only in the pages of the kinds of magazines young
Alice Norton did not want to be seen reading. The U.S.
and Soviet superpowers competed not just for influence on
Earth, but in the very space above. The science fiction Nor-
ton had loved as a child was becoming a reality.
Smoke rises from the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, on
August 6, 1945. Such all-powerful weapons were first imagined decades ear-
lier in the pages of science fiction.
 5
Unholy Trinity
Flying at low altitude, the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfor-
tress bomber, slipped unhindered into Japanese airspace. It
was a bright Monday morning on August 6, 1945. Along the
deltas of southwestern Honshu Island, Hiroshima residents
were preparing for the day. Commuters rode bicycles to their
jobs; groups of women and children labored outside. The
plane rose to 31,000 feet (9,448.8 meters). Below, members of
Japan’s Second Army were exercising, just some of the 43,000
soldiers stationed there.
In Europe, Germany and Italy had surrendered but despite
numerous allied victories, World War II continued across Asia.

57
58 Andre Norton

At 8:15 a.m. the plane released the weapon that would help
end it.
Lise Meitner, a physicist who was part of the team that
discovered nuclear fission, escaped her native Austria and
warned that if the Nazis succeeded in splitting an atom,
a single gram of uranium (the element used to split the
atom) could create more destructive violence than pound-
upon-pound of dynamite. As explained on California’s
Energy Quest Web site:
An atom’s nucleus can be split apart. When this is done, a
tremendous amount of energy is released. The energy is both
heat and light energy. Einstein said that a very small amount of
matter contains a very LARGE amount of energy. This energy,
when let out slowly, can be harnessed to generate electricity.
When it is let out all at once, it can make a tremendous explo-
sion in an atomic bomb.1

In the summer of 1939, the world-famous physicist Albert

Einstein, now living in the United States, wrote a letter to
President Franklin Roosevelt warning of the weapon’s
potential. It could level a city, Einstein explained. Soon
after, the U.S. military embarked on a similar project.
The project was conducted in total secrecy. Its first suc-
cessful test—code-named Trinity—occurred in a classified
location in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The explosion awed
viewers with a blast of heat and light, followed by a mush-
room cloud rising 40,000 feet (12,192 meters) in the air.
The atomic bomb was the most fearsome weapon ever
constructed. When the Enola Gay dropped its payload, the
bomb detonated 1,900 feet (579 meters) over Hiroshima.
The blast immediately vaporized hundreds of buildings and
tens of thousands of people. Birds in flight burst into flame;
the shape of bodies was blasted onto walls. Over 70,000
 Unholy Trinity 59

men, women, and children died that day. Many thousands

more perished from radiation poisoning in the days and the
weeks that followed. Deaths and disabilities related to the
bombing endured for generations.
Three days after the first bomb was dropped, the Japa-
nese government still had not surrendered. On August 9,
the United States dropped another atomic bomb, this time
on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The devastation mirrored
that of the first atomic attack: More than 40,000 people
immediately lost their lives and many more would die from
exposure to the lingering radiation. Destroying two civil-
ian cities was controversial. The alternative, using ground
forces to invade Japan, would have cost thousands of
American lives along with that of numerous Japanese, both
civilian and military. After Nagasaki’s destruction, Japan
formally surrendered. The war was over.

Serious Science Fiction

Destructive weapons such as the atom bomb were first
imagined in the pages of science-fiction magazines like the
ones secretly enjoyed by Alice Norton in the 1920s. “Any-
one who ever bought an SF [Science Fiction] pulp [maga-
zine] .€.€. remembers the stares he got from people passing
on the street.€.€.” recalled Terry Carr in Science Fiction for
People Who Hate Science Fiction, “the slightly raised eye-
brows, the barely concealed smiles of amusement, the gazes
embarrassedly averted from the gaudy covers .€.€. The usual
line SF readers got from others was, ‘You mean that crazy
Buck Rogers stuff?’” Carr continued:

This attitude was shaken a bit in 1945, when the demonstra-

tions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved as dramatically as
anything that has ever been proved that science fiction was not
60 Andre Norton

crazy. In science fiction, after all, the atomic bomb had been
taken for granted for many years, and its theoretical essentials
spelled out remarkably accurately.2

Science fiction differs from other genres because it lacks

elements that can be easily identified. Mysteries feature
crime and puzzle solving, westerns are set in a familiar
region, and romances are generally tales of love conquering
all. While science fiction can operate within those genres—
there are science-fiction mysteries, along with western or
romantic sci-fi—it can also be about far more. It can take
place anywhere and at any time and be about any kinds of
people—or not about people at all.
“Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with
the effects of change on people in the real world as it can
be projected into the past, the future or to distant places,”
James Gunn, author of The Science of Science Fiction
Writing, explains. “It often concerns itself with scientific or
technological change, and it usually involves matters whose
importance is greater than the individual or the community;
often civilization or the race itself is in danger.”3
Andre Norton’s entry into the genre began during what
is now considered to be the golden age of science fiction.
According to literary critic Harold Bloom, this period is
“generally taken to be 1939-1950, with Arthur C. Clarke,
Ray Bradbury and Fritz Leiber being perhaps its most
representative figures.” 4 In Bloom’s book, Science Fiction
Writers of the Golden Age, Norton’s name is conspicuously
absent, despite her having been an active writer during the
period. Contemporary Authors Online notes:
While critics may debate Norton’s literary significance, many
agree that her work has been overlooked for a variety of
reasons. For instance her first books were marketed towards
 Unholy Trinity 61

juvenile readers, much as the early work of Robert Heinlein

had been; thus, although they were read by people of all ages,
Norton’s novels were dismissed as relatively unimportant.5

Heinlein, however, is included in Bloom’s book, likely

because his work is considered representative of the World
War II era, while Norton’s science fiction evolved in later
eras. Yet it cannot be underestimated how much the war
shaped the genre. “World War II changed SF [science fic-
tion] as well,” explains Gunn. “Not only was it the first major
conflict whose course was determined by science and tech-
nology, it validated those .€.€. often ridiculed SF concepts, the
rocket ship and the atom bomb. In the late 1940s and early
1950s, as a consequence, SF proliferated in new magazines,
anthologies and hardcover and soft cover novels.”6
Although she was a fan, Norton came late to being a
science-fiction writer. Part of the reason, she claimed, was
that

science fiction magazines were virtually the only medium

for science-fiction in the United States between 1926 and
1946.€.€.€.€. A history of science fiction cannot be written
without substantial discussion of the contributions of Hugo
Gernsback, J.W. Campbell, Anthony Boucher and Horace
Gold, to mention only the major figures. The editors served
not only as gatekeepers, deciding what would get through to
the public, but in the case of Campbell, Boucher and Gold,
they intervened in the creative process and actively helped
shape science fiction to their desires.7

Until the 1950s, there were few science-fiction books,

either collections of stories or novels. Despite being an avid
reader of science-fiction short stories her whole life, Norton
struggled to write them. For her, writing something a dozen
62 Andre Norton

or so pages long was much harder than completing a 300-

page novel. “Short stories are not natural writing for me,”
Norton later explained, “and I have to work them over and
over—[I] seem to only think in book length plots.”8
She was in good company. “Many bestselling novelists in
America don’t write short stories,” Stephen King points out
in the introduction to his book of short stories, Just After
Sunset. “I doubt if it’s a money issue; financially success-
ful writers don’t need to think about that part of it. It might
be that when the world of the full-time novelist shrinks
to below, say seventy thousand words, a kind of creative
claustrophobia sets in. Or maybe it’s just that the knack of
miniaturization gets lost along the way. There are lots of
things in life that are like riding a bike, but writing short
stories isn’t one of them.”9
Science fiction would seem a daunting genre for some-
one like Norton, who had never graduated from college and
was more interested in history than in physics or astronomy.
Authors capable of imagining a future world of interplan-
etary travel, space bases, and laser weaponry are assumed
to have a solid grounding in the sciences. One notable
example is Arthur C. Clarke, who earned a degree in phys-
ics and mathematics from Kings College in London. There
are many other sci-fi authors, however, who do not have
such degrees: Leiber was a theatre major and Bradbury, one
of the best-selling science-fiction writers of all time, never
even attended college.
In an essay written in the 1950s, noted author and profes-
sor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov explained how the genre
accommodates both authors with doctorates and those with
high-school diplomas:
Science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned
with the impact of science upon human beings.€.€.€. I find
 Unholy Trinity 63

intellectual satisfaction in the definition because it places the

emphasis not on science but upon human beings. After all, sci-
ence (and everything else) is important to us only as it affects
human beings. .€.€. [S]ocial science fiction is the only branch
of science fiction that is sociologically significant.10

The emphasis on human beings and on what Asimov

calls “social science fiction” is more striking when one
considers that by the time this essay was published, Asimov
was not just a successful science-fiction writer, but had also
earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University
in New York City.

Categories of Science Fiction

Science fiction can be divided into “hard” and “soft” sub-
genres. Hard is technologically oriented; it strives to be as
accurate from a scientific perspective as possible. “Soft” is
primarily concerned with story and characters and is often
more reliant on soft sciences like psychology and sociol-
ogy. For example, Bradbury was often criticized by hard
sci-fi fans for his lack of interest in scientific accuracy. In
All Summer in a Day, he imagined the planet Venus as a
place where it rains nonstop for seven years and his Mars
of The Martian Chronicles was a planet with an Earth-like
environment.
Norton clearly fell into the “soft” division of science fic-
tion. “Miss Norton is rather unacquainted with the ‘hard sci-
ences,’ and her earlier books suffer a bit with her attempts to
go into detail,” explains Rick Brooks in The Many Worlds
of Andre Norton.
Miss Norton has little knowledge of technology and rarely
tries to explain the scientific wonders in her stories.€.€.€. Andre
Norton doesn’t go into detail because she doesn’t care. Tech-
nology is a necessary evil to get there for the adventure and
64 Andre Norton

Acclaimed science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein was extremely criti-

cal of the “soft” kind of sci-fi written by Andre Norton and others that
paid little attention to scientific principles.

get some of the story to work. And the adventure is as much

to mold her universe to her views as to entertain.11

Asimov’s focus on the value of people and social sciences

could be considered an encouragement to writers who were
not as interested in the hard sciences. Robert A. Heinlein,
however, believed such writers should find another genre.
“Not everybody talking about heaven is going there and
 Unholy Trinity 65

there are a lot of people trying to write science fiction who

haven’t bothered to learn anything about science,” Heinlein
explained in an essay called “On the Writing of Speculative
Fiction.” He continued:
Nor is there any excuse for them in these days of public librar-
ies. You owe it to your readers a) to bone up on the field of
science you intend to introduce into your story; b) unless you
yourself are well-versed in that field, you should also persuade
some expert in that field to read your story and criticize it
before you offer it to an unsuspecting public. Unless you are
willing to take this much trouble, please, please stick to a con-
temporary background you are familiar with.12

Despite Heinlein’s objections, there was a market for soft

sci-fi stories that Norton was able to tap into. (Although
Norton might have felt more comfortable thinking in
book-length plots, over the course of her writing career she
completed more than 50 short stories.) In 1947, her first
science-fiction story, “People of the Crater,” was published.
Norton’s debut appeared under a new pen name—Andrew
North—in publisher William L. Crawford’s first edition
of the magazine Fantasy Book. Years later, Norton would
honor the man who published her first science fiction/fan-
tasy story by sponsoring a contest for first fantasy novels.
The William L. Crawford Fantasy Award was given by the
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Vertigo
While one career was beginning to develop, another was
concluding. Norton found she was suffering from vertigo.
As the Neurology Channel explains,
vertigo, or dizziness, refers to the sensation of spinning (sub-
jective vertigo) or the perception that surrounding objects
66 Andre Norton

are moving or spinning (objective vertigo). Some patients

describe a feeling of being pulled toward the floor or toward
one side of the room. Moving the head, changing position, and
turning while lying down often worsen vertigo.€.€.€. They also
may include lightheadedness, imbalance, and nausea, usually
as a result of a change in position (e.g., rolling over in bed,
getting out of bed).13

By 1950, Norton was so afflicted she could scarcely

leave her bed. Working at the library—where she often had

Did you know...

Because librarians are book lovers, it is
not surprising that many of them, like
Andre Norton, are also authors. According
to one site, “In the fall of 2000, Jerri Gar-
retson, owner of Ravenstone Press and a
former children’s librarian and author her-
self, responded to a suggestion from her
husband, Peter, that a project to identify
children’s authors and illustrators who are,
or who have been, librarians, would make
an interesting web project and presentation
subject.”*
The response was huge. The list includes
writers like Norton and other authors such
as Leclaire Alger, who was a librarian in
New York during the 1920s and wrote This-
tle and Thyme, and Aleksandra Zajackowski,
who authored Imp-Probable Journeys and
serves as a librarian at the Army and Navy
Club in Washington, D.C.
* “Notes about this Project,” Ravenstone Press Web
site. http://ravenstonepress.com/libwritr.htm.
 Unholy Trinity 67

In 1945, Andre Norton was well established as a young adult

author but was looking to branch out into other genres, most nota-
bly science fiction.

to get up and down on stepladders to retrieve books—was

out of the question. After two decades of employment, Nor-
ton resigned her position at the Cleveland Public Library.
Fortunately, she found work as a publisher’s reader,
which helped to supplement the little money she earned
68 Andre Norton

from writing. “In the 1950s, I worked for Gnome Press,

reading manuscripts for Martin Greenberg for about three
years.€.€.€. Marty would send manuscripts to me and I would
read them in bed. One of them was The Forgotten Planet
by [Hugo Award-winning author] Murray Leinster.”14
The Forgotten Planet was the tale of “an experiment
gone wrong,” according to a description on Amazon.com,
“a planet seeded with primitive bacterial, plant, and insect
life forms, then forgotten until a spaceship crash-lands,
stranding its crew. The crew must fight to survive in a sav-
age nightmare world.”15 While the story made an impact on
Norton, not everyone was as big a fan of Leinster. Stephen
King described reading a Leinster novel as an inspiration
for another reason. “When I was in the eighth grade, I
happened upon a paperback novel by Murray Leinster, a
science fiction pulp writer who did most of his work dur-
ing the forties and fifties, when magazines like Amazing
Stories paid a penny a word,” King wrote in his book On
Writing. “I had read other books by Mr. Leinster, enough to
know that the quality of his writing was uneven.” The story
King described was not just uneven, it “was terrible, actu-
ally, a story populated by paper-thin characters and driven
by outlandish plot developments.”16
King’s experience was significant because he recognized
that he was already writing at a level superior to the work
of the oft-published author. “What could be more encour-
aging to the struggling writer than to realize his/her work
is unquestionably better than that of someone who actually
got paid for his/her stuff,” he added.17
For Norton, working at Gnome was an education as
significant as the Case Western writing classes she had
attended as an aspiring novelist. Norton already loved the
genre, but seeing what worked and what did not improved
 Unholy Trinity 69

her writing. Unfortunately, the reader job was not terribly

lucrative. “Greenberg did not send [the manuscripts] regu-
larly, since he didn’t have a lot of money,” she conceded in
an interview with Tangent magazine.18 As a result, she had
to rely more on her writing to provide an income. Economic
necessity spurred the author to greater productivity—and
to produce work of a higher quality than what she had been
reading at Gnome. At 38, far too young to retire, Norton
began editing science-fiction anthologies and contribut-
ing short stories to Gnome and other publishers. She also
started working on a new novel—her own version of sur-
viving a savage nightmare world.
Very often, science fiction explores the dark side of scientific experimenta-
tion. H.G. Wells did that in many of his novels, including The Invisible Man,
which was adapted for film in 1933 by director James Whale.
 6
Building a Universe
It is World War III. Nuclear missiles are launched from
the United States. Millions, perhaps billions, of people face
instant annihilation. Yet no human authority, neither generals
nor politicians, has given the order to launch. Instead, comput-
ers gave the command. Such a scenario has been common in
science fiction, in such films as T3: The Rise of the Machines
or WarGames, or more broadly, in the thousands of movies
and novels in which a human creation annihilates its creator.
These stories often express their authors’ concerns about the
dangers of progress. In her fiction, Andre Norton often shared
this worry. “Though many of her novels are set in the future,”

71
72 Andre Norton

Roger Schlobon explained in Andre Norton: A Primary and

Secondary Biography, “she has no special affection for the
technological and in fact science is most often the antago-
nist in her fiction.”1

The Dark Side Explored

Science-fiction fans usually love technology but are also
wary of it. Fifty years ago it was no different. While some
sci-fi readers were mesmerized by descriptions of the per-
fect robot or vacations to Jupiter, others sought depictions
of technology’s dark side. Readers of authors such as Robert
Heinlein and Ray Bradbury appreciated sci-fi’s potential for
unchecked destruction and loss of privacy. Another such
author was Philip K. Dick, today best known for such inno-
vative novels as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
Ubik, and The Man in the High Castle.
Dick’s first published short story appeared four years after
Norton’s “People of the Crater.” Like her, Dick was a college
dropout whose fascination with science fiction began before
he reached his teens. Searching at a newsstand for a copy of
the technical magazine Popular Science, he instead unearthed
the science-fiction magazine Stirring Science Stories. It was
a revelation. “I was most amazed,” he admitted later. “Stories
about science? At once I recognized the magic which I had
found, in earlier times, in the Oz books—this magic now
coupled not with magic wands but with science.€.€.€. In any
case my view became magic equals science .€.€. and science
(of the future) equals magic.”2
According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography
Supplement, Dick was drawn to other writers’ depictions
of “individuals who find themselves powerless in the face
of unseen forces and his own writings have been seen as
responses to the dehumanizing qualities of life in suburban
postwar California.”3 In a 1978 speech, he explained that
 Building a Universe 73

“two basic topics which fascinate me are ‘What is reality?’

and ‘What constitutes the authentic human being?’ .€.€. In
1951, when I sold my first story, I had no idea such funda-
mental issues could be pursued in the science fiction field.
I began to pursue them unconsciously.”4
Just as Norton distrusted technology, Dick distrusted
the “pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated
people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I
do not distrust their motives. I distrust their power.”5 Nor-
ton, Heinlein, Dick and many other sci-fi writers viewed
technology, including television programs, computers, and
automation, as threats to individual autonomy. Instead of
each person living his or her own life, these writers saw
the potential for people to become just cogs in a machine,
their lives run by an all-controlling government. Such gov-
ernmental influence, no matter how benevolent in appear-
ance, informed the work of writers published in the years
immediately following the U.S. victory in World War II.
Reviewing one of Heinlein’s novels, Phillip E. Smith II
notes that, “The underlying fantasy-wish of Beyond This
Horizon involves a justification of life and politics based on
libertarian and competitive principals.”6
This ideal champions the individual’s inherent right to
live his life free from governmental interference. “Hein-
lein, as so many critics have commented, is a right-wing
libertarian of the frontiersman breed,” explained Brian W.
Aldiss and David Wingrove in an essay that first appeared
in Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. “He
is a champion of the freedom to do things: which is to say
that he is a champion of the strong and the competent.€.€.€.€
Heinlein has a genuine hatred of bureaucracy, whatever its
political coloring.”7
As a Republican with a libertarian bent, Norton shared
Heinlein’s loathing of bureaucracy. For example, because
74 Andre Norton

she resided in a house that bordered two counties, she

received a tax bill from both. “She was told that it was too
much trouble to correct the programming and to ignore
the wrong tax. Which could have led to legal problems,”
Richard Brooks wrote in the essay, “Andre Norton: Loss of
Faith.” Norton told Brooks: “It is this sort of thing which
arouses hatred of having a machine in control.”8
Norton may not have been referring only to the computer
that made the error, but also to the government bureaucrats
who refused to fix it. “Norton consistently associates evil
with .€.€. a lack of appreciation for individuality and lib-
erty; opportunism, willful destructiveness and the urge to
dominate through the imposition of mechanized forms of
control,” explained Elisa Kay Sparks in her Dictionary of
Literary Biography essay on Norton.9
Many of Norton’s readers shared her values, which she
described in a 1974 interview:

Yes, I am anti-machine. The more research I do, the more

I am convinced that when western civilization turned to
machines so heartily with the Industrial Revolution in the
early nineteenth century, they threw away some parts of life
which are now missing and which the lack of leads to much
of our present frustration. When a man had pride in the work
of his own hands, when he could see the complete product he
had made before him, he had a satisfaction which no joys of
easier machine existence can give or take.€.€.€. So I make my
machines the villains—because I believe that they are so.€.€.€.
And I fear what is going to happen if more and more comput-
ers take over ruling us. This will doubtless seem like rank
heresy to you who are training to use such machines—but
with the growth of the impersonal attitude towards life which
they foster, there is going to be more and more anger and
 Building a Universe 75

frustration. And where it will all end perhaps not even a writer
of sf can foresee.10

Creations Running Amok

The fear that mankind’s creations would turn on their
masters is not a new one. In Jewish mythology, a golem
is a creature that is made from clay and given life by a
holy man, usually a rabbi. (In some versions of the story,
the Bible’s first man, Adam, began as a golem or “a body
without a soul.”) Given life, the golem protected Jews
against persecutors. In sixteenth-century accounts of a
golem, it went from being a protector to threatening inno-
cent lives. Both Jews and non-Jews were killed until a
rabbi disabled it.
During a cold and unpleasant summer, 18-year-old Mary
Shelley created her own golem-like creature. Drawing from
the work of Erasmus Darwin (not to be confused with natu-
ralist Charles), who supposedly animated dead tissue, she
entertained her friends with a story:
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the
thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a
man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful
engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital
motion. Frightful must be it; for supremely frightful must be
the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous
mechanism of the Creator of the World.11

First published in 1819 as Frankenstein; or The Modern

Prometheus, the book detailed a creature crafted from human
parts who eventually kills. It was seen by some as a reaction
to the dawning Industrial Revolution, the shifting away from
farm to factory and a greater reliance on machines. It was
the same reaction that Norton had 150 years later. Today,
76 Andre Norton

Frankenstein is considered by many literary critics to be the

very first science-fiction novel.

The Influence of Verne and Wells

Yet the true start of the science-fiction genre would not occur
until the late nineteenth century with the work of two men:
Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Norton was a fan of both. “As
a teenager,” Norton later told John L. Coker III, “I enjoyed
Verne and Wells but I also read over a rather wide field.”12
Shelley’s vision of progress’s destructive potential con-
trasted with Verne’s 65 novels forecasting the wonders of
a future age with incredible accuracy. Born in 1828, Verne
is considered by many to be the father of science fiction.
According to Authors and Artists for Young Adults, “Verne
referred to his works as ‘scientific romances’ for they com-
bined science fact with romantic conjecture and adventure.”13
Verne’s books are still widely read, including Journey to the
Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea;
film adaptations have been created from both books. His
novel From The Earth to the Moon combined meticulous
research with an adventure story. Written in 1865, more
than a century before the United States landed on the moon,
the novel correctly predicted the bullet shape of the rocket,
the launch site (Florida), weightlessness, the use of rockets
to change orbit, and even the capsule’s splashdown in the
Pacific—less than three miles (4.8 kilometers) from the
actual landing site of Apollo 8, which in 1968 became the
first manned space mission to orbit the moon. His descrip-
tions were so detailed that many readers believed them to be
reports of actual preparations for a moon launch and begged
to be passengers on the rocket.
In 1994, a century-old Verne manuscript was discovered,
Paris in the 20th Century, which described fax machines
and gas-powered automobiles long before their invention.
 Building a Universe 77

“What is important is that Verne recognized the necessity

of being scientifically correct,” Isaac Asimov explained,
complimenting Verne for “studying the scientific publica-
tions of the day, and trying to live up to the rules of the
scientific game. Most of the time he did, and the amazing
thing is he could be so extraordinary inside those rules.”14
Verne’s contemporary H.G. Wells was also a “soft” sci-fi
author, much like Norton. As author of The Time Machine,
The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds (all of which
have been made into movies), Wells saw science as a
launchpad for an exciting story. Scientific accuracy was far
less important. Of Wells, Verne remarked:

I consider him as a purely imaginative writer, to be deserving

of very high praise, but our methods are entirely different. I
have always made a point in my romances of basing my so-
called inventions upon a groundwork of actual fact, and of
using in their construction methods and materials which are
not entirely without the pale of contemporary engineering skill
and knowledge.15

Star Man’s Son

The future world of Norton’s creations is not one of help-
ful robot servants, flying cars, and family vacations to the
moon. Instead her stories often depict bleak landscapes
ruined by nuclear weapons in which lives are jeopardized
by murderous mutants. The main characters, if they were
not human, had recognizably human qualities. Although
their circumstances were extraordinary, the characters
themselves were often unremarkable.
As C.S. Lewis explained, “Every good writer knows that
the more unusual the scenes and events of his story are, the
slighter, the more ordinary, the more typical his persons
should be. Hence Gulliver is a commonplace little man
78 Andre Norton

and Alice a commonplace little girl. If they had been more

remarkable they would have wrecked their books.”16
Published in 1952, two decades after Norton’s writing
career began, Star Man’s Son marked a professional turn-
ing point. Nearly every story she published afterward fell
into the categories of either science fiction or fantasy. In
Star Man’s Son, young Fors is part man, part mutant. Yet
his external differences do not impact his personality. Many
of Norton’s leads are alien in appearance, but trustworthy.
Norton’s novels were unusual in the genre; appearance did
not dictate a character’s role. “Bad guys” could not be dis-
cerned by appearance; neither could the heroes.
“This is a world in which hate lives yet,” Arskane tells Fors
in the novel. “Let me tell you of my own people—this is a
story of the old, old days. The flying men who founded my
tribe were born with dark skins—and so they had in their day
endured much from those born of fairer races. We are a people
of peace but there is an ancient hurt behind us and sometimes
it stirs in our memories to poison with bitterness.”17
Published in 1952, Star Man’s Son describes the coopera-
tion between a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned man
toward a common goal. This depiction was radical for the
times. While Norton was writing the novel, bathrooms,
rail cars, and drinking fountains were frequently separated
by race throughout the southern United States. An 1896
Supreme Court decision allowing “separate but equal fac-
ulties” would not be overturned until 1954, when the U.S.
Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education
made school segregation illegal. Within a decade, all segre-
gation laws would be abolished.
In Star Man’s Son, Fors is rejected from society. He goes on
a quest for a mythical city—the only place on the planet free
from radiation. Sandra Miesel explains in the introduction to
Sargasso of Space that, “The typical Norton hero is a misfit
 Building a Universe 79

seeking his rightful place. He is usually poor, young, power-

less and frequently a victim, orphan, cripple or outcast. His
character-building struggle against his enemies is commonly
plotted as chase-capture-escape-confrontation. The hero
grows in wisdom, knowledge and virtue under stress.€.€.€.
Finally the victorious hero saves others beside himself.”18
Fors’s closest companion is his hunting cat, Lura, with
whom he communicates telepathically. Cats figured promi-
nently in many of her novels. The children’s librarian never
had children of her own. Cats were her kids, given free reign
wherever she lived. “Perhaps it is because cats do not live by
human patterns, do not fit themselves into prescribed behavior,
that they are so united to creative people,” Norton theorized
in the introduction to the Catfantastic book of short stories.
“Always the cat remains a little beyond the limits we try to
set for him in our blind folly. A cat does not live with one,
rather, one lives with a cat.”19 Describing the letters between
herself and Norton, science fiction and fantasy author Jean
Rabe explained, “Often she wrote about her cats.€.€.€. I wrote
back about my dogs. She called them our ‘fur people.’ Some-
times I’d send her books that I’d read and thought she might
enjoy—usually ones that had cats in them.”20

Norton’s Worlds
In the novels after Star Man’s Son, Norton did not envision
a planet populated by happy humans and their advanced
machines. Her earthbound stories depicted a planet whose
future resembled its ancient past. Her bleak postapocalyptic
worlds featured leveled cities and huge swaths of radioac-
tively uninhabitable land. People survived by hunting and
gathering, just as their ancestors did ten thousands of years
ago. The planes, cars, and other devices that had survived
rusted unused, their operations no longer understood by
their inheritors.
80 Andre Norton

For 11 years, from Star Man’s Son to 1963’s Judgment

on Janus, Norton’s novels depicted young people having
to survive in difficult circumstances, often protected by
animals. For example, in her 1961 novel Catseye, Troy
Horan works at a pet store, where he discovers his ability to
communicate telepathically with the store’s wares, not only
cats, but foxes and even a kinkajou—an animal related to
the raccoon that looks a bit like a ferret. Catseye is about
seeing the world through a cat’s eyes and about respecting
animals. While other stories have looked at racial equality,
in Catseye Norton takes it one step further, toward spe-
cies equality. At the novel’s conclusion, Horan explains, “It
could be very illuminating to see what might happen when
two or three species long associated in one fashion move

Did you know...

An anachronism is an error in chronology.
As a literary term, it refers to incidents or
items in a story that are out of place chrono-
logically—they should not exist at the time the
story takes place. The striking clock in William
Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is an example
of an anachronism. Although the inhabitants
of the future Earth depicted in Norton’s Star
Man’s Son behave like the hunter-gatherers
of thousands of years ago, the novel is set in
the future; atomic destruction justifies the
seemingly anachronistic details. In Norton’s
later book, Witch World, however, a setting
that could double for medieval Europe offers
anachronistic details when the characters
encounter inventions that would be considered
advanced in the modern United States.
 Building a Universe 81

into equality with each other, to work as companions, not

as servants and masters.”21

Expanding Her Audience

In the early 1960s, Norton’s audience was children. She had
yet to write for adults. One man, however, saw an untapped
market for her writing and began selling her science-
fiction novels to adult readers—the exact same books sold
to young-adult readers. Donald A. Wollheheim was an edi-
tor at Ace Books when he read Norton’s first forays into
science fiction. He recalled:
I have always felt that if a book was enjoyable to me as sci-
ence fiction, then it would be enjoyable to the readers I sought
to cater to. I published Andre Norton’s first science fiction
novel, a book packaged by its hardcover publishers as a juve-
nile, called Star Man’s Son. I published it in paperback with
a new title, Daybreak—2250 A.D. I avoided all reference to it
as a novel for young readers. I presented it simply as a darned
good novel for anyone who reads science fiction. It was so
accepted and it has been selling steadily ever since.22

Steadily is an understatement: Most accounts peg its

eventual sales to more than one million copies. Norton had
her first bestseller. By 1958, the Ace versions of her young-
adult science-fiction novels were selling hundreds of thou-
sands of copies. From those sales, she quickly became one
of the best-selling science-fiction novelists in history.
Nearly a quarter of a century after her fiction debut, Andre
Norton was finally able to become a full-time novelist.
During her eight years while working at Gnome, she wrote
more than a dozen novels. In the 1960s, she would create a
series spanning more books that she had written in her entire
career.
Unlike the women accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692
and 1693, the women of Andre Norton’s Witch World series were actual
witches. Shown here is the 1869 painting Witch Hill (The Salem Martyr)
depicting the witch trials in colonial Massachusetts.
 7
Witch World
The kingdom was ruled by women. They relied on a
combination of brains, witchcraft, and alliances with warriors
almost as powerful. They did not marry, nor did they have
children. Acolytes—young assistants—chose the witching life
as young women in another world chose the nunnery. Every
generation brought new conflicts, and some familiar lessons. It
was a place called Witch World.
“Witch World was never planned—it grew more or less by
itself,” Andre Norton explained in the introduction to Tales of
the Witch World. “I once intended a small portion of the first
volume to be part of an historical novel about the knights who

83
84 Andre Norton

settled in Outremer during the Crusades and built up small

kingdoms and holdings for themselves. The jump into
Witch World came almost by chance.”1
In the 1920s, young Alice Norton witnessed new free-
doms for women, from earning the right to vote and pursu-
ing nontraditional careers, to being able to go to nightclubs
unaccompanied by men. In the 1960s, as an author named
Andre Norton, she saw women gain even more rights dur-
ing the turbulent decade.
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the
Civil Rights Act into law. The law “prohibited discrimina-
tion in public places, provided for the integration of schools
and other public facilities, and made employment discrimi-
nation illegal.”2 The law was crafted in response to the
civil rights movement, which had been growing since the
U.S. Supreme Court had found school segregation illegal
in 1954. The strength of the movement was seen on August
28, 1963, when thousands of people marched on Wash-
ington, D.C. It was there that the Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr. delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream”
speech, in which he offered, “I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.”3
This idea of people being judged by the content of their
character was long championed by Norton. In Ralestone
Luck, the children of slaves and the children of plantation
owners united toward a common goal. In Star Man’s Son,
a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned man allied against
dangerous mutants. In Witch World, both genders aspired
to equality.
In 1963, the history major and college dropout had
become a successful novelist. Discrimination was not a
 Witch World 85

major issue for Norton, whose popular books guaranteed

that she earned as much as her male counterparts. Yet in
science fiction, the boundaries for female authors in general
were barely better than when she began writing.
In the 1950s, women like Norton published their science
fiction using male pseudonyms. In the 1960s, that began
changing. Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. Le Guin pub-
lished under their own names. Each won prestigious Hugo
Awards—McCaffrey was the first woman to do so, in
1968. Like Norton, they wrote soft sci-fi. They were not as
concerned with scientifically based stories as they were

Did you know...

Norton did not just champion gender
equality in her Witch World books. She
championed understanding for anyone with
a different belief system or anyone who
just appears unusual in mainstream society.
Between February 1692 and May 1693, the
town of Salem, Massachusetts, held trials
for women accused of witchcraft. Eventu-
ally, 19 men and women were executed by
hanging. According to Authors and Artists
for Young Adults, “Among the ancestors on
her father’s side, Norton counts one of the
witnesses at the Salem witchcraft trials, a
courageous soul who dared to speak up
in favor of Rachel Nourse, the first ‘witch’
accused.”*
* “Andre Norton,” Authors and Artists for Young
Adults, Vol. 14. Gale Research, 1995. Reproduced
in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills,
Mich.: Gale, 2009.
86 Andre Norton

with tales which drew from the social sciences like psychol-
ogy, or featured elements of sword and sorcery and high
fantasy. Yet, despite this progress, one magazine publisher
would use a story by Le Guin only if it appeared as “by
U.K. Le Guin.” The editor justified this by claiming that,
“Many of our readers are frightened by stories by women
authors.” 4

The Witch World Series

In 1963, Andre Norton envisioned a world where women
were more than just equal. They ruled. Witch World com-
bined a postapocalyptic landscape familiar to Norton fans
with persecuted witches, like those who had been tortured
and executed in Colonial America.
In the novel, a black marketer hunts Simon Tregarth, a
jaded survivor of World War II. Dr. Jorge Petronius offers
permanent escape. A portal to another place, another time:
a one-way trip to Witch World. He arrives in a region filled
with conflict. Warring nations are battling over borders
and wealth, with swords, shields, and horses. It could be
Europe during the Middle Ages, yet there are also planes
and armored ships.
Like many other artistic projects during the Vietnam
War, Witch World provided commentary on war in general
and its devastation and often senseless suffering. Tregarth
viewed the culture with surprise. It was a place both famil-
iar and foreign.
Was it Earth or an alternate world? That question is
never fully explained.
Like many of her other novels, Witch World “center[ed]
on the process by which a somehow displaced, exiled or
alienated hero or heroine finds a new home or a sense of
community,” Elisa King Sparks writes in the Dictionary of
 Witch World 87

Literary Biography. “From the first to the last, her books

insist on the necessity of cooperation between equals.”5
The country of Estcarp was ruled by women and closed
to those who did not believe women should rule over men.
Near Witch World’s conclusion, one witch admits that “the
day comes soon when we must throw aside many old cus-
toms, both we of Estcarp and you of the mountains for it is
better to be alive and able to fight, than to be bound by the
chains of prejudice and dead .€.€. and all men of goodwill
must stand together.”6
In the 1960s, women seeking new roles and challenges
sometimes clashed with traditionalists (both male and
female), who opposed their entry into jobs, politics, and
numerous other arenas that were historically dominated
by men. These conflicts were reversed in Witch World.
The United States and most other countries are tradition-
ally patriarchal societies, that is, ruled by men. In Witch
World, women—virgin witches with neither children nor
husbands—ruled the country of Estcarp. Men were allowed
to live in Estcarp and fight alongside the witches, but those
who questioned the power structure were not allowed to
remain. As the leader of the male warriors asked Tregarth:
“Have you not dwelt long enough yet in Estcarp, Simon,
not to know that it is a matriarchate? For the power which
is held safe lies not first in the swords of men, but in the
hands of its women? And the holders of Power are in truth
all women?”7
Witch World was controversial among feminists who ide-
alized female leaders. Surely, they asked, women who ran
nations would be more nurturing than male leaders, less
prone to violence, and more likely to pursue dialogues of
peace? Norton considered that idea ridiculous. Witch World
88 Andre Norton

was a place where dominant female leaders could be every

bit as diabolical as men. “Norton pioneered serious treat-
ment of matriarchy in fantasy,” one New York Times critic
observed in 1982, “but became somewhat of a disappoint-
ment to feminists in her insistence that matriarchies can be
just as static and repressive as male dominated cultures.”8
Witch World spawned a series that grew to 30 volumes.
Although not the sole author of them all, Norton’s influence
was steady throughout. The series featured alienated main
characters generally at odds with the advanced technology
they encountered. In later titles, other characters, including
the Adepts, are introduced. Able to create gates at will, they
can pass through these entrances into other worlds. They
return more powerful than when they left, making them
power-mad. In addition to the Adepts, the planet is also
populated by the Old Race of Escones. Estcarp and Arvon
dominate as well. They trace their history so far back that
they are either natives or the first to utilize the portal that
transported Tregarth.
In the 1960s, Norton gained new fans with her Witch
World series. Some of those were voters for the Hugo
Awards. Presented annually at the World Science Fiction
Convention, the Hugo Awards are different from awards
like the Newbery Medal, the ALA (American Library
Association) Book Award for Children’s Literature, or the
Pulitzer Prize in that they are not selected by a small com-
mittee of academics or librarians. “The Hugo Awards, to
give them their full title, are awards for excellence in the
field of science fiction and fantasy,” explains the Hugo
Web site. “They were first awarded in 1953, and have been
awarded every year since 1955. The awards are run by and
voted on by fans.” 9
 Witch World 89

Although Norton did not win a Hugo in the 1960s, she

was nominated for three: in 1962, for Star Hunter and the
short story “Wizard World,” and then two years later for
Witch World. Despite these accolades, for fans like Michael
Martinez:
Year of the Unicorn is arguably the very best of all the Witch
World books. It introduces a young woman, Gillan, who
undertakes a dangerous journey into a mysterious wasteland
as one of thirteen brides who have been offered to the perilous
Were-riders, mystical warriors who have helped High Hallack
to defeat Alizon’s technological armies.10

Gillan is one of Norton’s few female main characters.

“When I came to write Year of the Unicorn, it was my
wish to spin a story based on the old tale of Beauty and the
Beast,” Norton later explained in her essay “On Writing
Fantasy.” She continued:
I had already experimented with some heroines who inter-
ested me, the Witch Jelith and Loyse of Verlane. But to write
a full book from the feminine point of view was a departure.
I found it fascinating to write, but the reception was oddly
mixed. In the years now since it was first published, I have
had many letters from women readers who accepted Gillian
with open arms, and I have had masculine readers who hotly
resented her.11

With the success of the Witch World series, Norton was

able to leave Ohio for good in 1966. She relocated to Winter
Park, Florida, hoping the sunnier climate would improve
her poor health. By the end of the decade, Norton had more
ideas than time to write them. Her solution to this problem
quadrupled her output but seriously damaged her legacy.
Andre Norton in her private library, Christmas€1986. At this point in her
career, she was working with a wide variety of collaborators on a number of
books, including the Witch World series.
 8
Collaborations
and Legacies
When selecting a novel from a bookstore or library
shelf, the reader often seeks out a favorite author. But how
does an author become one’s favorite? That often depends on
how one is introduced to the author’s work. Literary fiction
may gain attention by reviews in the New York Times Book
Review or on a talk show. Genre readers usually learn of an
author’s work by word of mouth and stick with it for what
it provides—whether it is the scares of horror or the happy-
ending escapism of romance. “Authors become brands if they
write a certain kind of book,” explains Patrick Jansen-Smith,
the managing director of Transworld Publishers. “They build

91
92 Andre Norton

up brand loyalty—you know what you’re going to get when

you read one of their books. By the nature of their craft you
won’t get something wildly different. You know what you
are going to get.”1
Although we tend to think of brand loyalty as some-
thing pertaining to soda pop or laundry detergent, brand
loyalty as it applies to writers is hardly new, according
to Lynne Brown, brand manager for Dorling Kindersley:
“Although the concept of a ‘brand’ did not exist then, it
is clear that authors such as [Charles] Dickens were .€.€.
indeed guaranteeing a caliber of product that could be
relied on. If that is part of what you would call brand val-
ues then they had them.” 2
In many ways, Dickens resembled modern best-selling
authors. As writer David Lodge points out: “The excep-
tional popularity of his books extended to the New World.
The story of the crowds waiting on the quays in New York
for the ship carrying the latest installment of The Old Curi-
osity Shop to dock, calling out to the passengers and crew,
‘Is Little Nell dead?’ is well known.”3

Collaborations and Branding

Andre Norton did not attach her name to works she was not
involved with. She did, however, collaborate with a number
of writers throughout her career. Just as publishers assigned
outlines to unknown writers in the 1930s, creating novels
for series like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, Norton
did the same with her Witch World and Catfantastic series.
She was hardly the first.
The 1960s ushered in the age of celebrity artists such
as Andy Warhol, whose face became as recognizable as
his art. Warhol’s name was more than a signature at the
 Collaborations and Legacies 93

Unlike many sci-fi authors, few of Andre Norton’s books have been made
into movies, the exception being The Beast Master, a novel that was
adapted in 1982 by director Don Coscarelli. Actor John Amos (above)
was a member of the supporting cast.
94 Andre Norton

bottom of a canvas. It was a brand. Warhol’s iconic depiction

of a Campbell’s soup can helped him become almost
as well known as the soup company itself. One art site
explains, “After painting the soup cans, he switched almost
completely to silkscreen printing (because it was faster)
and stopped personally making his artwork all together.
Instead, he had assistants and other artists create his silk-
screen prints at his New York studio, which became known
as The Factory. In time his art was totally mass-produced,
closely mimicking the mass-produced products he often
depicted in his work.” 4 To some consumers, buying the
finished “product” was not much different than purchasing
a pair of designer jeans. The name on the label mattered
more than the actual creator.
Norton’s assigning of outlines to writers was considered
controversial by some fellow writers and fans. In writing
the first Witch World and Catfantastic books, she provided
a template that allowed others to develop characters within
the worlds she created. It was a way for an already success-
ful author to maximize the number of titles she produced.
It also maximized her profits. “Because of her ill-health,
and because of her need to keep funds coming in for her
sponsoring enterprises, Norton began to issue most of her
titles in the form of collaborations with a series of junior
writers,” John Clute claimed in the Independent. “It seems
clear that she maintained a strict overview, and often a
hands-on control of detail; but it does also seem that most
of these co-signed works were not in fact substantially
written by her.”5
Norton viewed coauthorship as a way to offer unpub-
lished writers an opportunity. She explained in an interview
with J.M. Cornwell, “I have spoken up for people I thought
 Collaborations and Legacies 95

talented but sometimes—most times—I have managed

through Witch World and Catfantastic to give some writers
I believe in a chance to show what they could do.” 6
This was invaluable. Publishers worry not only about
how well first-time novelists can write, but also about
how well they can sell. Connected to the proven secu-
rity of Andre Norton’s name, collaborators like Susan
Schwartz, Phyllis Miller, Mercedes Lackey, and Marion
Zimmer Bradley had to worry only about writing well.
The Norton brand would do the rest. These up-and-com-
ing women were given a chance Norton did not have:
They could write under their own names without worry-
ing about whether male readers would buy books written
by women.
Despite her talented collaborators, critics often felt the
books lacked the charm of earlier, solo-written Norton nov-
els. “It seems clear that she maintained a strict overview,

Did you know...

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America lists Robert Adams, Alicia Austin,
Robert Bloch, Marion Zimmer Bradley, A.C.
Crispin, Rosemary Edghill, Martin H. Green-
berg, P.M. Griffin, Grace Allen Hogarth,
John Kaufman, Mercedes Lackey, Dorothy
Madlee, Patricia Matthews, Julian May,
Lyn McConchie, Phyllis Miller, Sasha Miller,
Jean Rabe, Mary Schaub, Susan Schwartz,
Sherwood Smith, and Ingrid Zierhut among
Andre Norton’s many collaborators.
96 Andre Norton

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Steven Spielberg, was a

science-fiction film released in 1982 that proved to be a much greater
box office hit than The Beastmaster.
 Collaborations and Legacies 97

and often a hands-on control of detail; but it does also seem

that most of these co-signed works were not in fact substan-
tially written by her,” Clute points out. “No one can pretend
that the flood of titles in the last few decades enhanced her
reputation. They are respectable hack work; but they do not
have the Norton glow.”7
An interesting collaboration came in 1969, with the
publication of Bertie and May, which featured the work of
someone who might be considered her first collaborator:
her mother. Not only was Bertha Stemm Norton the first
reader for many of her daughter’s manuscripts, she also
wrote the first half of Bertie and May, which detailed her
childhood in the 1880s in rural Ohio towns. She described
her life with her sister May, as her father moved the family
from mill job to mill job. After Bertha Stemm’s death at age
95 in 1967, her daughter Andre completed the work.
Just as Norton was ahead of her time as a female sci-fi
and fantasy author and artistic collaborator, so too was
she ahead of her time in producing a brand. In recent
years, for example, thriller writer and former marketing
executive James Patterson successfully turned his name
into a brand and collaborated to an unprecedented degree:
Most of his novels are ghostwritten by others using his
outlines. “No one questions that [Patterson], author of 45
New York Times best-sellers and subject of a case study
in brand management at Harvard Business School, is a
brand, thanks to an army of consultants,” explains Jill
Prilick. “Patterson’s books, which have grossed more than
$1 billion and have filled the author’s coffers to the tune
of more than $100 million, are practically encoded with
unifying, Patterson DNA—from the title to the packaging
to the hook and hanging cliffhanger.”8
98 Andre Norton

From Page to Screen

While collaborations are relatively rare in fiction, movies
are always collaborative. No matter the budget, the final
product is the result of the efforts of the director, writer
or writers, actors, editors, camera people, and dozens
more. One of Norton’s novels, The Beast Master, would be
adapted to the silver screen in 1982 under the modified title
The Beastmaster.
Norton’s 1959 novel, like many of her stories, was ahead
of its time. The protagonist, Hosteen Storm, is a Navajo;
Norton’s depiction of a heroic Native American arrived
when many popular films portrayed them as dangerous
savages who were usually killed by the main character. By
1982, however, Hollywood was more even-handed in its
depictions.
The year 1982 presented three divergent views of science
fiction on screen. Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? was made into Blade Runner, starring
Harrison Ford. Its view of a technically advanced futuris-
tic but dangerously seedy Los Angeles captured the fears
many have of future life in a metropolis. Less dark and
more financially successful was Steven Spielberg’s E.T.:
The Extra-Terrestrial, which offered one of the few “alien
lands on Earth” movies in which the alien does not want
to destroy and conquer. Instead, E.T. only wanted to go
home. The top movie at the box office that year, it cemented
Spielberg’s reputation as king of the summer blockbuster,
one that began with Jaws in 1975.
Against such fierce competition, The Beastmaster was
not as successful at drawing in audiences. It is about a
king’s son who seeks to avenge his father’s death. Rely-
ing partly on his ability to communicate with animals, the
 Collaborations and Legacies 99

movie found neither the audience of E.T. nor the critical

acclaim of Blade Runner. It did, however, offer Norton a
chance to connect with filmgoers who might not have read
her books. By then her appeal to many science-fiction fans
approached the status of a legend.
Andre Norton at her home in Winter Park, Florida, in 1986. In the latter
part of her career, she sought to help aspiring genre authors in a variety of
ways, including through the establishment of the High Hallack Genre Writers’
Research and Reference Library.
 9
Remembrance
It took Andre Norton nearly a quarter of a century to move
from published novelist to full-time writer. It took her almost
as long to gain the respect of critics, partly because many of
her books were science-fiction novels written for young adults.
One writer noted in the New York Times that “she found herself
the victim of a Catch-22—critics of science fiction did not take
her seriously because she was considered a juvenile writer and
critics of children’s literature dismissed her because she wrote
science fiction.”1
A young-adult book could sell very well, but because it was
intended for a younger audience, both it and the author who

101
102 Andre Norton

created it often received less respect than did a novelist with

adult readers. The situation persists; despite the prestige of
prizes like the Newbery Medal and the Michael L. Printz
Award, both of which highlight the year’s best fiction for
young people, their winners still often get asked when they
will write a “real” book.
Although writers of young-adult fiction like Norton do
not often get the respect they deserve from critics, it should
be noted that adults often read young-adult books, such as
Lois Lowry’s The Giver and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter
series. New York Times best sellers like Stephanie Meyer’s
Twilight may be written for young adults, but they sell well
enough to be listed alongside adult fiction.
Fans—young and old alike—bought Andre Norton’s
books in the hundreds of thousands, even the millions.
They nominated her for awards. In 1977, Norton became the
first woman to win the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy
award at the World Science Fiction Convention. Seven years
later, in 1984, she won the Nebula Grand Master Award
from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and in 1998
she was presented with the World Fantasy Convention Life
Achievement Award. A year earlier she became the first
women to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers’ Hall of Fame.

Inspiring Others
Many of Norton’s fans were not just readers but writers as
well. She knew one of the most difficult challenges faced
by aspiring novelists was getting their work published. For
many science-fiction and fantasy writers, Andre Norton
was their champion.
“I wrote and asked her about the Catfantastic anthologies,”
author Laurie J. Underwood recalled, “and she told me she
 Remembrance 103

was reading at that time and invited me to submit, though

she said that she already had the anthology filled. But then
she turned around and bought my story within a couple of
days. It was very much a turning point.€.€.€. She was a sweet
women and became my literary grandmother.”2
Underwood’s experience with Norton was not unique.
Best-selling and prizewinning author Ursula K. Le Guin
remembered:
My first published novel was an Ace Paperback Double—the
kind where you read the book to the middle of the book,
and then it stopped, The End, and you turned it over, and
there was a whole other novel starting upside down on the
other side. Anyhow, it was my first published novel, and I
was proud of it, but nowhere near as proud as when I got
a letter from Andre Norton. The letter is in my files at the
U[niversity] of Oregon now, and I don’t remember the words,
only that she praised the book discerningly and encouraged
me to write more!3

Norton encouraged aspiring novelists, offering them col-

laborative opportunities, talking up their first novels, and
sending words of praise. “Getting published depends a great
deal on luck,” she once told an interviewer. “It involves get-
ting the right type of book to the right editor at the right
time.” 4
Beyond the challenges of publication, writers who labor
in any genre, from science fiction and horror to mystery
and romance, have fewer resources available than authors
of literary fiction. These latter writers may earn grants that
underwrite their work, win fellowships, and are champi-
oned at universities in a manner few genre writers enjoy.
These opportunities can often make up for the generally
lower sales of literary novels.
104 Andre Norton

High Hallack
In the 1990s, Norton had a vision. It was not for another
novel or a series. It was for a place. She decided to start a
writers’ retreat named after a setting in her Witch World
series. “There are several writers’ retreats in existence,”
Norton explained, “but they won’t admit genre writers.€.€.€.
High Hallack will be a working retreat and research library
for such writers. It is a plateau of seventy acres [0.283 square
kilometers] in the mountains of Putnam County, Tennessee
near a university and several national parks.”5

Did you know...

When Andre Norton died, she left behind
a beloved cat, millions of fans, and a con-
voluted inheritance. She had no children or
close relatives. According to her will, her
longtime caregiver, Sue Stewart, was her
residuary beneficiary, or the person who
receives the unclaimed remains of the estate,
while Dr. Victor Horadam was to receive
royalties from her works published post-
humously. The legal question was what did
“posthumous publication” mean? Does it
mean books published after her death from
new manuscripts (books that were never
published before) or did it mean any books
published after her death, including reprints?
While a trial court held that Ms. Norton’s
will used the terms “copyrights” and “royal-
ties” interchangeably, on appeal the estate
was settled so that Horadam received the
royalties and Stewart the copyrights. Stew-
art was also removed as executor.
 Remembrance 105

In 1999, she moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to begin

the project. Unfortunately, the author’s dreams were stron-
ger than her fragile body. After operating for nearly five
years, the research library—a 10,000-volume collection
housed in a converted three-car garage—was closed. The
auction of the library’s books was delayed only because she
broke her hip in April 2004.
Despite challenges to her health, she continued to write.
Bedridden and in her nineties, Norton completed her first
solo novel in nearly a decade. Three Hands for Scorpio
depicted the trials of the three kidnapped daughters of the
powerful Earl of Skorpys. The battles between the trio in
their dangerous new home, the Asimals, and their meeting
with a mysterious man and his cat-like companion were
vintage Norton. “Norton’s publisher, Tor Books, rushed
to have one copy printed so that the author, who had been
sick for almost a year, could see it,” explained Beth Rucker
in the America’s Intelligence Wire.6
Less than a week later, on March 17, 2005, Andre Norton
died of congestive heart failure in Murfreesboro, Tennes-
see. Even though she had no children or close family, her
fans, numbering in the millions, mourned her. Following
Norton’s wishes, her body was cremated along with copies
of her first published novel and her last.
 chronology
1912 Alice Mary Norton is born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Adalbert
Freely and Bertha Stemm Norton.
1916 By Norton’s account, she begins reading simple books.
1929–1930 Seventeen years old, Norton begins work on her first novel.
It will be published in 1938 as Ralestone Luck.
1930 She graduates from Collingwood High School.
1930 She attends Flora Stone Mather College and Cleveland
College (now Case Western Reserve University). A decline
in family fortunes forces her to drop out after her freshman
year.
1930–1941 Norton is hired at a branch of the Cleveland Public Library
and becomes a children’s librarian shortly after her hire.
She attends writing courses at night and works on her first
young-adult novel.
1934 Her first published novel, The Prince Commands, appears
under the name Andre Norton.
1940–1941 Norton works as a special librarian at the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C. for a citizenship project.
1941 She becomes owner and manager of the Mystery House
Bookstore (and lending library) in Mount Rainier, Maryland.
1942–1951 Norton returns to Cleveland and her job as a children’s
librarian at the Cleveland Public Library.
1942 She publishes her first spy novel, Follow the Drum, which
was inspired by the letters she read from a Dutch spy while
in Washington, D.C.
1944 Norton achieves major professional success with her second
spy novel, The Sword is Drawn.
1947 Her first science-fiction short story, “People of the Crater,” is
published under a new pseudonym, Andrew North.
1950–1958 After two decades of employment (and work at all but two
of its branches), Norton leaves the Cleveland Public Library
system and accepts a job as a reader at Gnome Press, a
science-fiction publisher.

106
 chronology 107

1958 Twenty-four years after her first novel is published, Norton

becomes a full-time writer.
1963 Witch World, a novel that will spawn another 29 books in the
series, is published.
1966 Norton moves to Winter Park, Florida.
1977 Norton earns the Grand Master of Fantasy Award and the
Gandalf Award.
1999–2004 She serves as director of the High Hallack Genre Writers’
Research and Reference Library in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
2005 Norton approves the Andre Norton Award for young-adult
novels presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
of America.
2005 She dies on March 17 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
 Notes
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
1 John L. Coker III, “TO Classic: 1 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
Days of Wonder—A Conversation Wonder.”
with Andre Norton,” Tangent 2 Patricia Scott Deetz and
Short Fiction Review, January 30, Christopher Fennell, “Mourt’s
1996. http://www.tangentonline. Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims
com/index.php?option=com_ at Plymouth, 1622, Part One.” The
content&task=view&id=379& Plymouth Colony Archive Project,
Itemid=166. December 14, 2007. http://www.
2 J.M. Cornwell, “Andre Norton: An histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/mourt1.
Interview,” The Rose and Thorn (A html.
Literary E-Zine). Vol. 4, Issue 1, 3 “Andre Norton,” Authors and
Winter 2001. http://www.therose Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 14.
andthornezine.com/Profile/andre Gale Research, 1995. Reproduced
norton.html. in Biography Resource Center.
3 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale,
Wonder.” 2009.
4 Ibid. 4 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
5 Andre Norton, The Prince Wonder.”
Commands. Review on Amazon. 5 Chelsea Hochstetler, “L. Frank
com. http://www.amazon.com/ Baum,” Map of Kansas Literature.
review/R323LFRNXXKTTS. http://www.washburn.edu/refer-
6 Dennis McLellan, “Andre Norton; ence/cks/mapping/baum/index.html.
93, A Prolific Science Fiction, 6 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
Fantasy Author,” Los Angeles Wonder.”
Times, March 19, 2005, p. B17. 7 Ibid.
7 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of 8 Ibid.
Wonder.”
9 James Gunn, “Henry Kuttner,
8 “Andre Norton,” Encyclopedia C.L. Moore,” The Science of
of World Biography Supplement, Science Fiction Writing. Latham,
Vol. 28. Gale, 2008. Web site of Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2000,
the Science Fiction and Fantasy p. 179.
Writers of America. Reproduced
in Biography Resource Center. 10 Ibid, p. 180.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 11 Andrew L. Yarrow, “Sci-Fi Fans
2008. Meet to Ponder Genre’s Present,”

108
 NOTES 109
New York Times, September 4, 4 Sacvan Bercovitch and Cyrus R.K.
1989, p. 13. Patel, The Cambridge History of
12 Andre Norton, Moonsinger. American Literature: Poetry and
Author’s dedication from Criticism, 1900–1950. Cambridge,
Websubscription.net. http:// U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
www.webscription.net/chapters/ 1994, p. 482.
1416520619/1416520619.htm. 5 “Deans of Flora Stone Mather
13 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of College, 1930–1931.” Flora Stone
Wonder.” Mather Center for Women of
Case Western Reserve University.
14 Andre Norton, “On Writing http://www.case.edu/provost/
Fantasy,” The Many Worlds of centerforwomen/women/fsmdeans.
Andre Norton. Radnor, Pa.: html.
Chilton Book Company, 1974,
p. 61. 6 Ibid.

15 “Domestic Grosses Adjusted 7 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of

for Ticket Price Inflation,” Wonder.”
boxofficemojo.com. http://www.box 8 “Early Literature For Girls,”
officemojo.com/alltime/adjusted. Beyond Nancy Drew: A Guide to
htm. Girl’s Literature. December 5,
16 Steve Coates, “Scarlett O’Hara: 2008. http://library.duke.edu/
A Hero of Our Times?” New York specialcollections/bingham/guides/
Times, March 9, 2009. beyond/earlylit.html.

17 Andre Norton, Ralestone Luck, 9 Ibid.

Charleston, S.C.: Bibliobazarr, 10 Norton, Prince Commands, Amazon
p. 182. review.
11 Norton, “Fantasy,” Many Worlds,
Chapter 3 p. 61.
1 Molly Billings, “The Influenza 12 Cornwell, “Norton,” Rose and
Pandemic of 1918,” February 2005. Thorn.
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/.
2 David Greenburg, Calvin Chapter 4
Coolidge. New York: Times Books, 1 Stephen King, On Writing. New
Henry Holt and Company, 2000. York: Pocket Books, 2000, p. 152.
p. 72.
2 Peggy Noonan, “2008 Her Year of
3 John Rothchild, “When the Reading Furiously,” The Orange
Shoeshine Boys Talk Stocks It County Register, December 28,
Was a Great Sell Signal in 1929. 2008, Commentary, p. 4.
So What Are the Shoeshine Boys
Talking About Now?” Fortune, 3 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
April 15, 1996. http://money.cnn. Wonder.”
com/magazines/fortune/fortune_ 4 Library of Congress, History from
archive/1996/04/15/211503/index. USA.gov Web site. http://www.loc.
htm. gov/about/history.html.
110 NOTES

5 Mark Horowitz, “Larry McMurtry’s 7 Ibid. “Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore,

Dream Job,” New York Times, et. al,” p. 177.
December 7, 1997. http://www. 8 “Andre Norton (1912–2005)
nytimes.com/books/97/12/07/home/ Remembrances,” Science Fiction
article2.html. and Fantasy Writers of America.
6 Ibid. http://www.sfwa.org/archive/news/
7 William Shakespeare, Hamlet, anorton.htm.
Act IV, Scene V. http://www. 9 Stephen King, “Introduction,” Just
famousquotes.me.uk/hamlet-quotes/ After Sunset. New York: Scribner,
hamlet-quote-when-sorrows-come- 2008, pp. 2–3
14.htm. 10 Bloom, “Isaac Asimov,” Science
8 Fredrick P. Hitz, “Espionage ver- Fiction Writers, p. 19.
sus Intelligence,” How the United 11 Richard Brooks, “Andre Norton:
States Goes About Spying,” Why Loss of Faith,” The Many Worlds of
Spy: Espionage in an Age of Andre Norton. Radnor, Pa.: Chilton
Uncertainty. New York: Thomas Book Company, 1974, pp. 188–189.
Dunne Books, pp. 12–13.
12 Robert Heinlein, “On the Writing
9 “Norton,” World Biography, Vol. 28. of Speculative Fiction,” Writing
Science Fiction & Fantasy. New
Chapter 5 York: St Martin’s Press, 1991,
p. 10.
1 Energy Story, “Chapter 13:
Nuclear Energy—Fission and 13 “Vertigo (Dizziness) Signs and
Fusion.” http://www.energyquest. Symptoms,” NeurologyChannel.
ca.gov/story/chapter13.html. http://www.neurologychannel.com/
vertigo/symptoms.shtml.
2 Terry Carr, “Introduction,”
Science Fiction for People Who 14 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
Hate Science Fiction. New York: Wonder.”
Doubleday, 1966, p. 7. 15 The Forgotten Planet (Classics of
3 Gunn, “Toward a Definition of Modern Science Fiction, Volume 6).
Science Fiction,” Science Fiction Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.
Writing, pp. 73–74. com/Forgotten-Planet-Classics-
Science-Fiction/dp/0517554127.
4 Harold Bloom, “Introduction,”
Science Fiction Writers of the 16 King, On Writing, pp. 145–146.
Golden Age. New York: Chelsea 17 Ibid.
House, 1995, p. xi.
18 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
5 Contemporary Authors Online. Wonder.”
Gale, 2009. Reproduced in
Biography Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, Chapter 6
2009. 1 Contemporary Authors Online,
6 Gunn, “The Origins of Science Gale, 2009.
Fiction,” Science Fiction Writing, 2 Philip K. Dick, Encyclopedia of
p. 69. World Biography Supplement,
 NOTES 111
Vol. 28. Farmington Hills, Mich.: 20 “Andre Norton (1912–2005)
Gale, 2009. Remembrances,” Science Fiction
3 Ibid. and Fantasy Writers. http://www.
sfwa.org/archive/news/anorton.htm.
4 Philip K. Dick, “How to Build
a Universe That Doesn’t Fall 21 Andre Norton, Catseye. New York:
Apart Two Days Later.” http:// Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961,
deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm. p. 191.

5 Ibid. 22 Donald A. Wollheheim,

“Introduction,” Many Worlds.
6 Bloom, “Robert A. Heinlein,” pp. viii.
Science Fiction Writers, p. 116.
7 Ibid, p. 119.
Chapter 7
8 Brooks, “Andre Norton: Loss of
1 Andre Norton, “Introduction,” Tales
Faith,” Many Worlds, p. 190.
of the Witch World. New York: Tor,
9 Contemporary Authors Online, 2001, p. 1.
Gale, 2009.
2 “Civil Rights Act,” Our
10 Brooks, “Andre Norton: Loss of Documents Initiative. http://
Faith,” Many Worlds, p. 192. www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.
11 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, php?flash=true&doc=97.
Frankenstein. New York: Barnes 3 Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a
and Noble Classics, 2003. Dream,” American Rhetoric:
12 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of Top 100 Speeches. http://www.
Wonder. americanrhetoric.com/speeches/
mlkihaveadream.htm.
13 “Jules Verne,” Authors and Artists.
Vol. 16. 4 Susan Schwartz, “Women and
Science Fiction,” New York Times,
14 Ibid.
May 2, 1982, p. BR-11.
15 “H.G. Wells,” Authors and Artists.
5 Contemporary Authors Online,
Vol. 18.
Gale, 2009.
16 Gunn, “Heroes, Heroines,
6 Andre Norton, “Witch World,”
Villains,” Science-Fiction Writing,
The Gates to Witch World. New
p. 103.
York: Tor, 2001 p. 127.
17 Andre Norton, Star Man’s
Son: 2250 A.D. New York: 7 Ibid, p. 94.
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1952, 8 Schwartz, “Women and Science
p. 104. Fiction.”
18 “Andre Norton,” Authors and 9 “Hugo Award FAQ: What are the
Artists. Vol. 14. Hugo Awards?” Hugo Awards Web
19 Andre Norton and Martin site. http://www.thehugoawards.
H. Greenberg, “ Speaking of org/?page_id=5.
Cats—A Very Weighty Subject,” 10 Michael Martinez, “Andre Norton’s
Catfantastic. New York: Daw Witch World Legacy. ” Xenite.Org:
Books, 1989, p. vii. Worlds of Imagination on the Web.
112 NOTES

http://www.xenite.org/witch-world/ 6 Cornwell, “Norton: An Interview,”

legacy.html. Rose and Thorn.
11 Norton, “On Writing Fantasy,” 7 Clute, “Andre Norton: Prolific
Many Worlds. p. 67. Artist.”
8 Jill Priluck, “Advertisements
Chapter 8 for Yourself: Can and Should
1 Edwin Colyer, “Are Books Bound Book Authors Become Brands?”
by Their Brand?” brandchannel. Slate: The Big Money, January 28,
com. http://www.brandchannel.com/ 2009. http://www.thebigmoney.
features_effect.asp?pf_id=137. com/articles/dead-trees/2009/01/28/
2 Ibid. advertisements-yourself.
3 David Lodge, “Dickens Our
Contemporary,” The Atlantic, May Chapter 9
2002. http://www.theatlantic.com/ 1 Christopher Lehmann-
doc/200205/lodge. Haupt, “Andre Norton Dies
4 “Andy Warhol: Mass at 93; A Master of Science Fiction,”
Produced Art with popular New York Times, March 18, 2005,
Appeal,” Empty Easel. http:// p. B-8.
emptyeasel.com/2007/05/22/
2 “Norton Remembrances,” Science
andy-warhol-mass-produced-art-
with-popular-appeal/. Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

5 John Clute, “Andre Norton: Prolific 3 Ibid.

Artist who Created Worlds of 4 Coker, “TO Classic: Days of
Wonder and Escape,” (London) Wonder.”
Independent, March 21, 2005.
5 Ibid.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/
obituaries/andre-norton-529308. 6 Contemporary Authors Online,
html. Gale, 2009.
 works by
andre norton
1934 The Prince Commands
1938 Ralestone Luck
1942 Follow the Drum
1944 The Sword Is Drawn
1947 Rogue Reynard
1948 Scarface
1949 Sword in Sheath (published as Island of the Lost, 1953)
1951 Huon of the Horn
1952 Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. (published as Daybreak, 2250 A.D., 1954)
1953 Star Rangers (published as The Last Planet, 1955)
1954 At Swords’ Point; The Stars Are Ours!; Murders for Sale (as
Allen Weston, with Grace Hogarth) (also published as Sneeze on
Sunday)
1955 Sargasso of Space (as Andrew North; published as Andre Norton,
1970); Star Guard
1956 Plague Ship (as Andrew North; published as Andre Norton, 1971);
The Crossroads of Time; Stand to Horse
1957 Sea Siege; Star Born
1958 Star Gate; The Time Traders
1959 The Beast Master; Galactic Derelict; Secret of the Lost Race (pub-
lished as Wolfshead, 1977); Voodoo Planet (as Andrew North)
1960 Storm over Warlock; The Sioux Spacemen; Shadow Hawk
1961 Ride Proud, Rebel!; Catseye; Star Hunter
1962 The Defiant Agents; Eye of the Monster; Lord of Thunder; Rebel
Spurs
1963 Key Out of Time; Judgment on Janus; Witch World
1964 Web of the Witch World; Ordeal in Otherwhere; Night of Masks
1965 Three Against the Witch World; The X Factor; Quest Crosstime
(published as Crosstime Agent, 1975); Steel Magic (published as
Gray Magic, 1967); Year of the Unicorn

113
114 works by andre norton

1966 Moon of Three Rings; Victory on Janus

1967 Octagon Magic; Operation Time Search; Warlock of the Witch
World
1968 Sorceress of the Witch World; Dark Piper; Fur Magic; The Zero
Stone
1969 Postmarked the Stars; Bertie and May (with Bertha Stemm
Norton); Uncharted Stars
1970 Dread Companion; Ice Crown
1971 Android at Arms; Exiles of the Stars
1972 The Crystal Gryphon; Dragon Magic; Breed to Come
1973 Forerunner Foray; Here Abide Monsters
1974 The Jargoon Pard; Lavender-Green Magic; Iron Cage; Outside
1975 The Day of the Ness (with Michael Gilbert); Merlin’s Mirror; The
White Jade Fox; Knave of Dreams; No Night Without Stars
1976 Red Hart Magic; Wraiths of Time; Star Ka’at (with Dorothy
Madler)
1977 The Opal-Eyed Fan; Trey of Swords (short stories); Velvet
Shadows
1978 Yurth Burden; Zarsthor’s Bane; Star Ka’at World (with Dorothy
Madler); Quag Keep
1979 Snow Shadow; Seven Spells to Sunday (with Phyllis Miller); Star
Ka’ats and the Plant People (with Dorothy Madler)
1980 Iron Butterflies; Voorloper
1981 Horn Crown; Forerunner; Star Ka’at and the Winged Warriors
(with Dorothy Madler); Gryphon in Glory; Ten Mile Treasure
1982 Moon Called; Caroline
1983 Ware Hawk; Wheel of Stars
1984 House of Shadows (with Phyllis Miller); Stand and Deliver;
Gryphon’s Eyrie (with A.C. Crispin); Were Wrath
1985 Ride the Green Dragon (with Phyllis Miller); Forerunner: The
Second Venture
1986 Flight in Yiktor
1987 The Gate of the Cat
1989 Imperial Lady: A Fantasy of Han China (with Susan Schwartz)
1990 Black Trillium (with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May);
Dare to Go A-Hunting; The Jekyll Legacy (with Robert Bloch)
1991 The Elvenbane; Storms of Victory (with Pauline Griffin)
 works by andre norton 115

1992 Flight of Vengeance (with P.M. Griffin and Mary H. Schaub);

Mark of the Cat; The Songsmith (with A.C. Crispin)
1993 Golden Trillium; Redline the Stars
1995 Elvenblood: An Epic High Fantasy (with Mercedes Lackey)
1996 The Monster’s Legacy, (illustrated by Jody A. Lee); The Warding
of Witch World
1997 Derelict for Trade: A Great New Solar Queen Adventure (with
Sherwood Smith)
1998 Scent of Magic
1999 Wind in the Stone
2000 To King a Daughter (with Sasha Miller)
2005 Three Hands for Scorpio
 popular books
Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D.
Both Norton’s first science-fiction novel and first eventual mil-
lion-seller (including sales from its repackaging as an adult novel),
it tells the story of a young man whose mutant legacy prompts his
exile into a world that had been devastated by an atomic war two
centuries ago.
Witch World
The book that launched a series of more than 30 books, the first
introduces Simon Tregarth, who escapes from our world into
Witch World, a place that seems part middle-ages Europe and part
advanced society. In this book he aids a witch named Jaelithe.
Year of the Unicorn
The first full-length novel Norton wrote from a woman’s point
of view, the story of Gillan is set in the place introduced in Witch
World.
The Beast Master
The first of Norton’s book to become a movie, this is the story of a
Native American who communicates with animals.

116
 popular characters
Fors
Part mutant, part human, and able to understand his hunting cat,
Lura, Fors’s background makes him more willing to accept people
from different tribes and races who have the common goal of sur-
vival in a harsh world.
Simon Tregarth
A World War II veteran and skilled fighter, Tregarth leaves Earth
for an unfamiliar place, where he leads warriors aligned with the
witches.
Hosteen Storm
A Navajo warrior leaves his home Terra behind for the dangerous
world of Arzor to face the man who killed his father.

117
 major awards
1946 The Sword is Drawn wins an award from the Dutch government.
1950 Sword in Sheath wins the Ohioana Juvenile Award.
1962 Star Hunter earns a Hugo Award Nomination at the World Science
Fiction Convention.
1964 Witch World earns a Hugo Award Nomination at the World
Science Fiction Convention.
1976 Norton receives Phoenix Award for Overall Achievement in
Science Fiction.
1977 Norton wins the Grand Master of Fantasy Award and the Gandalf
Award for Lifetime Achievement.
1981 She is named to Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.
1984 Norton wins the Jules Verne Award for work in the field of science
fiction.
2005 She approves the Andre Norton Award for young-adult novels pre-
sented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

118
 bibliography
Books
Bagley, Tennent H. Moles, Mysteries and Deadly Games. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2007.
Delattre, Lucas. A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich. New York:
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005.
Hitz, Frederick P. Why Spy? Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty.
New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.
Morford, Mark P.O. and Robert J. Lenardon. “The Trojan Saga and the
Illiad.” Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Frankenstein. New York: Barnes and Noble
Classics, 2003.

Periodicals
Dotinga, Randy. “When the Very Young Write that First Big Book.”
Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2005. Available online.
URL: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0725/p12s01-bogn.html.
Hevesi, Dennis. “Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema—Intrepid Dutch Spy in
WWII.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2007, p. B4. Available
online. URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/
a/2007/10/09/BA2BSM185.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea.
Horowitz, Mark. “Larry McMurtry’s Dream Job.” New York Times
Magazine. Available online. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/
books/97/12/07/home/article2.html.
Lodge, David, “Dickens Our Contemporary.” The Atlantic, May 2002.
Available online. URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200205/lodge.

Speeches
Woolf, Linda M., Ph.D. “Survival and Resistance: The Netherlands Under
Nazi Occupation.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, April
6, 1999. Available online. URL: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/
netherlands.html.

119
120 bibliography

Other Sources
“The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima.” The Manhattan Project—An
Interactive History, U.S. Department of Energy Office of History and
Heritage Resources. Available online. URL: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/
me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm.
“The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki.” The Manhattan Project—An
Interactive History, U.S. Department of Energy Office of History and
Heritage Resources. Available online. URL: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/
me70/manhattan/nagasaki.htm.
Badsey, Stephen. “World Wars In Depth.” BBC History. Available online.
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/.
Billings, Molly. “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” Stanford University,
June 1997, modified RDS February 2005. Available online. URL:
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/.
Coates, Steve. “Scarlett O’Hara: A Hero of Our Times?” New York Times.
March 9, 2009.
Dan. “Andy Warhol: Mass Produced Art with Popular Appeal.”
Empty Easel, May 22, 2007. Available online. URL: http://
emptyeasel.com/2007/05/22/andy-warhol-mass-produced-art-with-
popular-appeal/.
Durbin, Deborah. “Little Women.” American Studies at the University of
Virginia. Available online. URL: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/
Alcott/aboutla.html.
Garretson, Jerri. “Librarians who are Authors of Children’s and Young
Adult Literature.” Authors Among Us. Available online. URL:
http://ravenstonepress.com/libwritr.html.
Geha, Rabia and Kelly Wooten. “Beyond Nancy Drew: A Guide to Girls’
Literature.” Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture
at Duke University Library. Available online. URL: http://library.
duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/beyond/.
“The Library of Congress History.” Available online. URL: http://www.
loc.gov/about/history.html.
“The Manhattan Project—An Interactive History.” U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources. Available online.
URL: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/index.htm.
Martinez, Michael. “Andre Norton’s Witch World The Witch World Books
by Andre Norton.” Xenite, 1997—2009. Available online: URL:
http://www.xenite.org/witch-world/.
 bibliography 121

Merriman, C.D. “L. Frank Baum,” The Literature Network. Jalic, 2005.
Available online. URL: http://www.online-literature.com/baum/.
McGovern, Linda. “The Man Behind the Curtain: L. Frank Baum and the
Wizard of Oz.” Literary Traveler. Available online. URL: http://www.
literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/l_frank_baum.aspx.
“Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1622, Part I.”
The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Available online. URL:
http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/mourt1.html.
Noakes, Jeremy. “The Rise of Adolf Hitler.” BBC. Available online.
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/.
Norton, Andre. “Dedication to Sylvia Cochran.” Moon of Three Rings.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Available online. URL: http://
www.webscription.net/chapters/1416520619/1416520619.htm.
———. Project Gutenberg. Available online. URL: http://www.gutenberg.
org/browse/authors/n#a7021.
“Nuclear Energy—Fission and Fusion.” Energy Story—California Energy
Commission. April 22, 2002. Available online. URL: http://www.
energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter13.html.
“Ohio History.” E-Reference Desk. Available online. URL: http://www.
e-referencedesk.com/resources/state-history/ohio.html.
Oreck, Alden. “The Golem.” Jewish Virtual Library, 2009. Available
online. URL: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/
Golem.html.
“Pen Pals—World Pen Pals.” Available online. URL: http://www.
world-pen-pals.com/.
Pilon, Terryl Whitaker. “Salem Witchraft.” Salem, Massachusetts
Genealogy. Available online. URL: http://salem.essexcountyma.net/
salem_witchcraft.htm.
Rabe, Jean. Jean Rabe’s Website. Available online URL: http://www.sff.
net/people/jeanr/.
Taubenberger Jeffrey K. and David M. Morens. “1918 Influenza: The
Mother of All Pandemics.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, Centers
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ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm.
“What are the Hugo Awards? Hugo Award Facts.” Available online. URL:
http://www.thehugoawards.org/?page_id=5.
 further reading
Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Boston: Shambhala
Publications, 1986.
King, Stephen. On Writing. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.
Norton, Andre. The Many Worlds of Andre Norton. Radnor, Pa.:
Pennsylvania Chilton Book Company, 1974.

Web Sites
The Andre Norton Forum
http://www.andre-norton.org/
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
http://www.sfwa.org

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 picture credits
page:
10: Mark Humphrey/AP Images 67: The Andre Norton Estate
16: The Andre Norton Estate 70: Universal Pictures/Photofest
20: The Andre Norton Estate 82: Witch Hill (The Salem
22: © Bettmann/CORBIS Martyr) 1869 (oil on canvas),
30: AP Images Noble, Thomas Satterwhite
(1835-1907)/© Collection
33: The Andre Norton Estate of the New-York Historical
36: The Andre Norton Estate Society, USA/The Bridgeman
44: The Andre Norton Estate Art Library
49: AP Images 90: The Andre Norton Estate
53: The Andre Norton Estate 93: © Photos 12/Alamy
56: AP Images 96: Universal Pictures/Photofest
64: © Ed Kashi/CORBIS 100: The Andre Norton Estate

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 index
Abott, Jacob, 39 Case Western Reserve University,
Ace Books, 81 12–13, 14, 28–29, 36–37, 42–43
Adams, John, 50 Casino Royale (Fleming), 55
African Americans, 28 Catfantastic (Norton), 79, 92–95,
Alcott, Louisa May, 19 102–103
Aldiss, Brian W., 73 cats, 79
All Summer in a Day (Bradbury), 63 Catseye (Norton), 80–81
Amazing Stories Magazine, 23 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
anachronism, 80 54
ancestors, 17–18 childhood and youth
Appleton Century, 14, 43 being alone, 24
Asimov, Isaac, 62–63, 64, 77 books and reading in, 18–23
atomic bombs, 58–59 writing in high school, 24–25
awards and nominations, 89, 102 Civil Rights Act, 84
Clarke, Arthur C., 60, 62
Baruch, Bernard, 35–36 Cleveland Press World Friends Club,
Baum, L. Frank, 19–21 52
Beast Master, The (Norton), 98 Cleveland Public Library, 13, 39, 52,
Beastmaster (movie), 98–99 67
Bertie and May (Norton and Norton), Clute, John, 94, 97
97 coauthorship, 94–97
Beyond This Horizon (Heinlein), 73 Cochran, Sylvia, 12, 25
Bible, 53–54 Cold War, 55
Blade Runner (movie), 98–99 college, 12–13, 36–37
Bloom, Harold, 60–61 Collingwood High School, 24–25
Booked Up, 51–52 Collingwood Spotlight, 12
bookstores, 49, 51–52 Coming of Age in Samoa (Mead), 35
Boucher, Anthony, 61 Coolidge, Calvin, 34
Bradbury, Ray, 60, 62, 63, 72 copyright, 27
Bradford, William, 17–18 Crawford, William L., 65
Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 95
branding and brand loyalty, 91–97 Darwin, Erasmus, 75
Brooks, Rick, 63–64 Daybreak—2250 A.D. (Norton), 81
Brown, Lynne, 92 death of Andre Norton, 104, 105
bureaucracy, 73–74 Dick, Philip K., 72–73, 98
Burnett, Frances “Eliza” Hodgson, 40 Dickens, Charles, 92
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Campbell, John W., 14, 61 (Dick), 72, 98
Carr, Terry, 59–60 Dutch spies, 48, 52

124
 Index 125
Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Hinton, S.E., 12
Life, An (Maynard), 12 Hiroshima bombing, 57–59
Einstein, Albert, 58 history, love of, 41–42
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 19 Hitler, Adolf, 46–47
Eragon (Paolini), 12 Hobbit, The (Tolkien), 13
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (movie), Homer, 53
98–99 Horadam, Victor, 104
Hosteen Storm (character), 98
family history, 17–18 Hugo Awards, 88–89
Fantasy Book magazine, 65
female authors, 85–86 Icarus Girl, The (Oyeyemi), 12
Finley, Martha, 39–40 Iliad, The (Homer), 53
Fleming, Ian, 55 influenza, Spanish, 32–34
Flora Stone Mather College, 12–13,
28–29, 36–37 Jansen-Smith, Patrick, 91–92
Flower Fables (Norton), 19 Jefferson, Thomas, 50
flu, Spanish, 32–34 Jews, 47, 48
Follow the Drum (Norton), 54, 55 Judgment on Janus (Norton), 80
Forgotten Planet, The (Leinster), 68 “juvenile” literature, 38–41, 101–102
Fors (character), 78–79
Frankenstein (Shelley), 75–76 Kennedy, Joseph, 35
From the Earth to the Moon (Verne), King, Martin Luther Jr., 84
75 King, Stephen, 45–46, 62, 68
Kuttner, Henry, 24
Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy
award, 102 Lackey, Mercedes, 95
gender equality, 84–88 Lamb, Harold, 21
Germany, 46–48, 51 Le Guin, Ursula K., 85–86, 103
Gernsback, Hugo, 23, 61 Leiber, Fritz, 60, 62
Giver, The (Lowry), 102 Leinster, Murray, 68
Gnome Press, 68–69, 81 Lewis, C.S., 77–78
Gold, Horace, 61 librarian jobs
golems, 75 Cleveland Public Library, 13,
Gone With the Wind (Mitchell), 38–39, 41, 52, 67
25–26, 45 Library of Congress, 50–51
Greenberg, Martin, 68, 69 Library of Congress, 50–51
Gunn, James, 60 Little Princess, The (Burnett), 21
Little Women (Alcott), 19
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 53 Lodge, David, 92
hard vs. soft science fiction, 63–65 Lorens Van Norreys (character), 55
Harry Potter series (Rowling), 102 Lowry, Lois, 40, 102
Heinlein, Robert A., 61, 64–65, 72, 73
High Hallack writers’ retreat, 104– machines, suspicion of, 74
105 magazines
high school, 11–12, 24–25 Amazing Stories Magazine, 23
Hindenburg, Paul von, 47 in childhood, 23
126 Index

Fantasy Book, 65 “On Writing Fantasy” (Norton), 42

science-fiction, 59–60, 61 Outsiders, The (Hinton), 12
Stirring Science Stories, 72 Oyeyemi, Helen, 12
Martian Chronicles (Bradbury), 63
Martinez, Michael, 89 Paolini, Christopher, 12
Mather, Flora Stone, 38 Paris in the 20th Century (Verne),
Mather, Samuel, 38 75–76
Maynard, Joyce, 12 Paterson, Katherine, 40
McCaffrey, Anne, 85–86 Patterson, James, 97
McMurtry, Larry, 51–52 “People of the Crater” (Norton), 65
Mead, Margaret, 35 Plymouth colony, 17–18
Mein Kampf (Hitler), 47 Poe, Edgar Allan, 24
Meitner, Lise, 58 Prilick, Jill, 97
Meyres, Stephanie, 102 Prince Commands, The (Norton), 14,
Michael Karl (character), 43 41, 43
Michael L. Printz Award, 102 Prohibition, 34
Miesel, Sandra, 78–79 pseudonyms, 43, 85
Miller, Phyllis, 95 public domain, 27
Mitchell, Margaret, 25–26, 45
Moon in Hell, The (Campbell), 14 Rabe, Jean, 79
Moonsinger (Norton), 25 Ralestone Luck (Norton), 11–12,
Moore, C.L., 23–24 25–28, 45, 84
movies, 98–99 reader job, 68–69
Mundy, Talbot, 21 Richanda Ralestone (character),
Mystery House, 49, 51 26–28
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 51, 54, 58
Nagasaki bombing, 59 Rowling, J.K., 102
Nazi (National Socialist German Rupert Ralestone (character), 26–28
Workers’) Party, 47
Nebula Grand Master Award, 102 Salem witchcraft trials, 85
Newbery Medal, 102 Sargasso of Space (Norton as North),
Noonan, Peggy, 48–49 78–79
Norton, Adalbert Freely (father), 13, Schwartz, Susan, 95
19, 38 science fiction
Norton, Andre, works of. See specific as genre, 60–63
titles hard and soft, 63
Norton, Andre (Alice), name of, 14, origins of term, 23
43 readers of, as loners, 24
Norton, Bertha Stemm (mother), 19, “social,” 63
41–42, 97 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’
nuclear fission, 58 Hall of Fame, 102
nuclear weapons, 57–59 science-fiction magazines. See
magazines
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), 54 Secret Garden, The (Burnett), 21, 40
Ohio, history of, 18 segregation, 78, 84
On Writing (King), 45–46 Shakespeare, William, 53, 80
 Index 127
Shelley, Mary, 24, 75–76 Verne, Jules, 75–76
short stories, 62 vertigo, 65–67
Simon Tregarth (character), 88
Smith, Phillip E., II, 73 Warhol, Andy, 92–94
social science fiction, 63 Wells, H.G., 75, 77
soft vs. hard science fiction, 63–65 Western Reserve University (later
Soviet Union, 55 Case Western Reserve), 12–13, 14,
Spanish flu, 32–34 28–29, 36–37, 42–43
Sparks, Elisa King, 86–87 will, 104
Spielberg, Steven, 98 Wilson, Woodrow, 34, 54
Spofford, Ainsworth Rand, 50 Wingrove, David, 73
spy stories, 52–55 Witch World (Norton), 80, 83–89,
Star Hunter (Norton), 89 92–95
Star Man’s Son (Norton), 77–79, 80, “Wizard World” (Norton), 89
81, 84 Wollheheim, Donald A., 81
Stewart, Sue, 104 women and gender equality,
Stirring Science Stories, 72 84–88
stock market crash of 1929, 13 Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The (Baum),
Stone, Amasa, 38 19–21, 41
Sword in Drawn, The (Norton), 54–55 World Fantasy Convention Life
Achievement Award, 102
Tales of Witch World (Norton), 83 World War I, 31–32
technology, distrust of, 72–73 World War II
Thoreau, Henry David, 19 atom bombs dropped on Japan,
Three Hands for Scorpio (Norton), 57–59
105 end of, 55
Tolkien, J.R.R., 13 Hitler and coming of, 46–48
Tor Books, 105 OSS and CIA, 54
Treaty of Versailles, 46, 47 science fiction and, 61
Troy Horan, 80–81 U.S. entry into, 51
writers’ retreat, 104–105
Underwood, Laurie J., 102–103 writing courses, 42–43
uranium, 58
Year of the Unicorn (Norton), 89
Valerius Ralestone (character), young-adult (“juvenile”) literature,
26–28 38–41, 101–102
 about the contributor
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Vermont, John Bankston
began writing articles as a teenager. Since then, more than 200
of his articles have been published in magazines and newspa-
pers across the country, including the Tallahassee Democrat, the
Orlando Sentinel, and the Rutland Business Journal in Vermont.
He is the author of more than 60 biographies for young adults,
including works on scientist Stephen Hawking, anthropologist
Margaret Mead, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and actor Heath Ledger.
This is his third book in the Who Wrote That? series. He lives on
Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California.

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