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CASFS - In Memory
Andre Norton
1912 - 2005
"As for courage and will - we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry us through trials which may lie ahead." - Andre Norton
Andre Norton, 93, the "Grand Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy," author, poet, editor, whose published works span seven decades, died of congestive heart failure in her Murfreesboro, Tennessee home, early Thursday morning, March 17th.
Andre Norton was born Alice Mary Norton on February 17, 1912, in Cleveland Ohio. She wrote more than 130 novels, nearly one hundred short stories, and edited numerous anthologies in the science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, and western genres. She was the first woman to win the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy award and the Nebula Grand Master award. She also received Skylark, Balrog, and World Fantasy awards.
Her love of books began at the age of two, when her mother started reading and reciting poetry to her. While attending Collingwood High School, Ms. Norton edited a fiction page for the school newspaper, The Collingwood Spotlight, and started her first novel, Ralestone Luck, which became her second published book. She attended the Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University, studying to be a history teacher. However, financial pressures forced her to quit after her freshman year. She to work to help support her family during the hard times of the Great Depression. Still, she managed to take night courses in English and journalism offered by Cleveland College, and she continued to write. She held several jobs in the literary field, including working for the Library of Congress during WWII. She also briefly owned a book store. Most importantly, she worked at the Cleveland Public Library in the children's section. During her stint with the library, she worked in thirty-eight of the forty branches.
The Prince Commands, a historical fantasy, was Ms. Norton's first published novel. It was released in 1934, when she was only twenty-two. She began using the name Andre that year, after publishers told her that a masculine name would help sell to her target audience of boys. By 1950, at age 38, she had nine novels to her credit. That year she left the Cleveland Public Library to take a job as a reader at Gnome Press. By the time she left Gnome Press eight years later, she had twenty-three novels and several short stories published.
In 1958 she struck out to become a full-time writer. Over the next twenty years she wrote nearly seventy novels, two dozen short stories, and edited several anthologies. One of her most beloved series, Witch World - a wondrous planet reachable through metaphysical gateways - started with a single novel in 1963. More than thirty Witch World titles followed. In 1966 she moved to Florida, and later moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where in 1999 she opened "High Hallack," a retreat and research library for writers. She closed the library in 2004.
Through the years, she edited several anthologies for Martin Greenberg' s Tekno Books company, including the long-running Cat Fantastic series, which began in 1989, and Renaissance Faire, which was published by DAW Books in early February of 2005.
Her last complete novel, Three Hands for Scorpio, is set to be released in early April from Tor Books. It is the last manuscript she penned alone, and she was especially proud of it. Return to Quag Keep, a sequel to her Quag Keep from 1979, will be released as a collaboration in January, 2006.
She surrounded herself with books and cats, ending each evening reading in bed with a favorite cat curled next to her. She incorporated her love of both in the many cat anthologies she edited, and in numerous short stories. Her latest published short story, "Faire Likeness" in Renaissance Faire, features a cat she adopted. When her health began to decline in 2004, she parted with a few of her cats. However, she continued to keep the oldest "RT" by her side until the end, and she managed to feed the stray cats that frequently visited her yard.
She was quick to recommend good books to friends, and to offer advice to new authors, helping to pave the way for several people to be published. She also instructed hobbyists in the art of making jewelry. Crafting necklaces, bracelets, and earrings became a passion in the last two years of her life when she found it increasingly difficult to write at a keyboard. Jewelry she fashioned continues to be featured at her Ebay Store.
Her novels are too numerous to list in full here. However, among her many credits are several series: Witch World and Witch World: The Turning, High Hallack, Beast Master, Secret of the Lost Race, and Estcarp. Some of her stand-alone novels include: Star Guard (1955), Sargasso of Space (1955 as Andrew North), The Time Traders (1958), Catseye (1961), Steel Magic (1965), Operation Time Search (1967), Fur Magic (1968), Exiles of the Stars (1971), High Sorcery (1984), Dragon Magic (1985), Shadowhawk (1987), Dare to Go A-Hunting (1990), Golden Trillium (1993), Mirror of Destiny (1995), and The Solar Queen (2003).
She allowed several authors and editors to collaborate with her. Among them: Robert Adams, Alicia Austin, Robert Bloch, Marion Zimmer Bradley, A.C. Crispin, Rosemary Edghill, Martin H. Greenberg, 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 Shwartz, Sherwood Smith, and Ingrid Zierhut.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced the formation of the Andre Norton Award for young adult novels. She approved this before her death, and suggested several titles for consideration. The awards will be announced along with the Nebulas, with the first award being presented in 2006. The award will be selected following the same procedure as the Nebulas.
At her direction, there will be no service. She requested memorials to be made in her honor to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Veterinary Services (c/o the Noah Fund) P.O. Box 10128, Murfreesboro, TN 37129.
She is survived by her close friends and caretakers Sue and Ollie Stewart, her cat RT., and her family of fans throughout the world.
Tributes and Memories
"A superb storyteller with a narrative pace all her own." --The New York Times
"I've seen a complete collection of Andre Norton's books and it haunts me to this day, sort of like the sight of an unscalable Everest." --C.J. Cherryh
Memories of Andre Norton
by Adam Niswander
The death of a legend is a big thing, and the death of Andre Norton is one of the most difficult.
I never had the honor of meeting the lady, but I have entered her mind and imagination so many times that it feels like home.
Not that her imagination ever became predictable or that I took it for granted.
But I had not met her, was not an insider in her life, and therefore cannot share personal recollections of interactions with her. She was an inspiration, but there is nothing simple about that.
Over the last few years, as her health declined, I have responded to each health crisis, urging those who have grown up with her as I did to pay attention and to actively wish her well, and almost begging those who had not discovered her to take the time and do it while she lived - because we do not often lose someone of such giant stature and we should be awed by it when it happens.
And, wonder of wonders, each time - with the support of a cadre of friends and supporters - that grand lady of science fiction recovered somehow, and continued on - a poignant reminder each time that she possessed an indomitable spirit.
But this time, she did not recover.
The friends who have sacrified so much to care for her and help her could finally not do any more than say goodbye for all of us and watch with loving eyes as she moved on to pioneer some new adventure, to discover some new task worthy of her.
Alice Mary Norton began selling her work during a time when it was difficult for a woman to break into the field of science fiction.
In 1934, she legally changed her name to Andre Norton. She sometimes used the pseudonym Andrew North, but I suspect it was, as often as not, because her work already made up the bulk of a particular magazine issue and the editor wanted to have people at least think the magazine could find other writers just as talented.
But not many were.
I have read her work since my childhood and I frequently reread it now. I can never seem to get enough of it because it is so rich, so full of zest and wonder, so original, so well-executed, so entertaining . . . so near-perfect as to be amazing.
If Robert Heinlein was the writer I most admired in my life, Andre Norton was at least close behind, sometimes crowding him for the lead.
She was born in 1912, which is really all the more remarkable when you think of it.
Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first airplane flight in 1903, only nine years earlier.
But Andre Norton would become famous for writing about adventures on worlds circling suns other than our own.
Book after book, decade after decade, she continually astounded readers with her consistency and inventiveness, and with the magic of her prose.
The lady set the standards high for any who wished to follow in her footsteps.
Now she is gone.
But she has left us with great wealth, with unmatched treasures, with literally shelves of books that will likely be entertaining our great-great-grand-children when we are dust.
She can't be replaced.
But she did pave the way and inspire those who follow her - C. J. Cherryh, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ann McCaffrey, Ann Rice and other brilliant writers who happen to be women. And her work inspired many of us who just happen to be men.
Others shared the hard work earlier - woman writers who broke down gender bias like Judith Merril, Evangeline Walton, Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Miriam deFord, Zenna Henderson, Ursula LeGuin, Catherine Lucille Moore, Joanna Russ, Catherine Crook de Camp, Karen Anderson, Margaret St. Clair and Alice Sheldon.
Andre Norton will always be one of the golden pillars of speculative fiction, one who contributed seminal work in both science fiction and fantasy.
She will remain a part of the fabric of our literature as long as people read and seek escape through adventure.
We can only offer tribute in the wake of her passing, but we can sense that there is a sudden void in the heart of our universe, a place where, just yesterday, a star burned with brilliance, and now there is darkness.
We will adjust to the dark, and new stars will be born to light the firmament, but this moment must be marked.
For now, in homage and respect, let us raise our glasses and toast the Grande Dame of our field.
Thank you, Andre. Thank you for what you've given us. We send our love with you on your journey.
Adam Niswander
Phoenix, AZ