S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: NORTON, Andre Alice (born Alice Mary)
Aged: 93
Born: February 17, 1912
Where: Cleveland, Ohio
Died: March 17, 2005
Where: Murfreesboro, TN
Interred: Cremated
Awarded: Over 35 awards. Among them: 1977 Gandalf Grand Master; 1979 Balrog for Lifetime Achievement; 1983 Nebula Grand Master; 1983 Skylark for Imaginative Fiction; a special Howard from the 1987 World Fantasy Convention; 1997, induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame; and a 1998 World Fantasy Convention Life Achievement Award.
Andre Norton
"Nothing can stop the questing of men---not even Man.
If we will it . . . the very stars are ours."
A prolific writer whose long career moved from Science Fiction to Fantasy. Norton gathered a following of female writers around herself, not unlike Marion Zimmer Bradley, and in her later years participated in some works attributed to her only in outline or with editing suggestions. She legally changed her name from Alice Mary to Andre Alice in 1934 for personal reasons before the name became famous.
Norton began writing in high school and went on to attend college at Western Reserve University, planning to become a history teacher. But she reached adulthood in the Depression and was forced to find work wherever she could. In 1932, Norton was hired by the Cleveland Library system and was there for 22 years. [Remembering the "library period," Norton liked to say that she worked in "all but two of Cleveland's forty-seven branches."] She tried her hand at a small business, which failed, and then worked for Gnome Press for a couple years as a manuscript reader before making the move to fulltime, freelance author.
Author of over 100 books, Norton was best known for...lots of cat stories...and many novellas published by Ace doubleback books that were really cool at the time. Among them were 1955's Sargasso of Space (as Andrew North), 1956's The Crossroads of Time, & 1956's Plague Ship (also as Andrew North). At one point, Andrew North was the more popular of the two. Series novels occurred but were not a major theme for her as they were for authors like Jack Chalker, Robert Adams, and Gordy Dickson. Norton liked to write a good sequel but didn't often move beyond it; exceptions were the series for Time Traders and Witch World. She wrote a respectable number of short stories and novels, but her main body of work occurred at novella length. Collections included 1974's The Many Worlds of Andre Norton; and fantasy collections, 1980's Lore of the Witch World and 1989's Wizards' Worlds. Her shorter stories were usually in the fantasy realm. As she aged, more and more of "her books" were co-authored. Which doesn't imply that she was not clear headed...just no longer driven.
Andre Norton was an asset to her trade, her literature, and her profession.
PEN NAMES: Andrew North and Allen Weston
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.
OBITUARY: Several.
