Andre Norton

When I was in junior and senior high school in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, I read a lot of science fiction novels. Most of the books were Ace paperbacks that I bought from the spinner rack at Lincoln Pharmacy, the local drugstore. The Ace paperbacks came as singles and doubles. The singles contained one novel and the doubles contained two novels. The doubles novels had one story’s cover on the front and the other story’s cover on the back. The spine displayed both titles. You would read the first novel, then flip the book over and read the second. I discovered Andre Norton’s novels in the drug store as Ace paperbacks and fell in love with her stories.

Ace Doubles Paperback

Like Rosemary Sutcliff, Alice Mary Norton was a remarkable woman who battled ill health for most of her life. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1912, she dropped out of college because of the Great Depression, which altered so many people’s lives and crushed their ambitions. She ended up working in the Cleveland Public Library. When she was 22, she published her first novel. Back then, editors discriminated against women writers. So later that same year Norton legally changed her name from Alice Norton to Andre Norton. She figured that editors and readers would consider a novelist named Andre to be either male or female.

Norton published in several genres, including historical fiction and romance. In 1947, she turned to science fiction by publishing her first science fiction short story, “The People of the Crater,” in Fantasy Book Magazine in 1947. Her big break came in 1952 when she published her first science fiction novel, Starman’s Son, 2250 AD, which science fiction readers scoffed up. She continued writing science fiction. Some of my favorites are The Stars Are Ours, Star Born, Time Traders, and Voodoo Planet.

Back then, though, mostly boys read science fiction because the themes were mostly male oriented. Norton eventually thought that girls should be able to read it, too, and set out to write a series whose stories would appeal to them. The result was Witch World, which became widely popular with girls. The series also became her most popular one.

Norton won many awards for her science fiction writing, including the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy award—the first woman to ever receive it.

Unfortunately, Norton’s ill health eventually prevented her from writing, and she died in 2005 from congestive heart failure. She requested not to be buried, but to be cremated—along with the first and last books she wrote, The Prince Commands (1922) and Three Hands of Scorpio (2005).

Andre Norton still has plenty of fans today, and I’m one of them.