NORTON, Andre

   Initially the working name of Alice Mary Norton (1912-), but for some years now her legal name. A librarian for two decades before turning to full-time writing, she was one of the few sf figures of any stature to enter the field via CHILDREN'S SF, and, though much of her work is as adult in theme and difficulty as most general sf, she was for many years primarily marketed as a writer for children and adolescents. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, as her work changed in emphasis from sf to fantasy and as her popularity continued to grow, new novels and reprints alike were released primarily into the general market.AN began to publish in the 1930s with The Prince Commands (1934) which, like her slightly later WWIIespionage trilogy - The Sword is Drawn (1944), Sword in Sheath (1949; vt Island of the Lost 1953 UK) and At Swords' Point (1954) - was not ofdirect genre interest. She came to sf proper only in 1947 with "The People of the Crater" for Fantasy Book, as by Andrew North, a pseudonym she used also for 3 novels; the story was included in Garan the Eternal (coll 1972) which, along with High Sorcery (coll 1970), The Many Worlds of Andre Norton (coll 1974; vt The Book of Andre Norton 1975), ed Roger ELWOOD, andPerilous Dreams (coll 1976), assembled most of her relatively small output of short fiction.AN's career can, very roughly, be divided into two equal periods: the two decades from 1950 when she concentrated on sf novels, most of them gathered into series which were in turn treated as loose units in a broadly conceived common galactic superseries; and the two decades from 1970 when, after the success of the Witch World SCIENCE-FANTASY sequence, she produced numerous further fantasies.Throughout both periods, her most typical protagonists have been young women or men who must undergo some form of rite de passage into a sane maturity; in so doing, they characteristically discover that the true nature of the Universe lies not in what it might become (hence the lack of CONCEPTUAL-BREAKTHROUGH novels in her oeuvre) but in its history, and inthe talismans and icons associated with that history. The Universe revealed in these numerous books - from her first sf novel, Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D. (1952; vt Daybreak-2250 A.D. 1954 dos; vt Star Man's Son1978), to her most recent - is a colourful, complex and rewarding environment for her typical protagonists to come to terms with; though any advanced technology there deployed- FASTER-THAN-LIGHT space travel, for instance, and at one time or another almost every other instrument of SPACE OPERA - serves mainly to add verisimilitude to AN's romantic SENSEOF WONDER, and to a style in which science and TECHNOLOGY are in fact treated perfunctorily (if at all) and more often than not as inimical to humanity and its friends. Close - sometimes telepathic - rapports might exist among people, or between human and beast as in Catseye (1961), but rarely or never are human beings called to shape their lives in the service of transcendent or objective goals. AN's instincts, in other words, have never been those of the natural sf author; however, in the sense that her books never violate her audience's legitimate expectations, AN has always been an orthodox writer.The sf novels, mostly told againstthe shared galactic backdrop, were widely varied, featuring a multitude of space-opera themes and plots, along with several comparatively intimate studies of humans and ALIENS and beasts, and their relationships under various circumstances. Series include: the Central Control sequence, comprising Star Rangers (1953; vt The Last Planet 1955 dos) and Star Guard (1955); the Astra or Company of Pax sequence, comprising The Stars areOurs! (1954) and Star Born (1957); the Dane Thorson or Solar Queen sequence, comprising Sargasso of Space (1955 as by Andrew North; 1969 as by AN), Plague Ship (1956 as by North; 1969 as by AN), Voodoo Planet (1959 dos as by North; 1968 as by AN), Postmarked the Stars (1969) and Redline the Stars (1993) with P.M. GRIFFIN; the Blake Walker sequence, comprising The Crossroads of Time (1956 dos) and Quest Crosstime (1965; vt CrosstimeAgent 1975 UK); the Ross Murdock sequence, comprising The Time Traders (1958), Galactic Derelict (1959), The Defiant Agents (1962), Key out of Time (1963) and Firehand (1994) with P.M.Griffin; the Hosteen Storm sequence, comprising The Beast Master (1959; cut 1961) and Lord of Thunder (1962); the Forerunner sequence, comprising Storm over Warlock (1960),Ordeal in Otherwhere (1964), Forerunner Foray (1973), Forerunner (1981) and Forerunner: The Second Venture (1985); the Janus sequence, comprising Catseye (1961), Judgment on Janus (1963) and Victory on Janus (1966); theMoon Singer sequence, comprising Moon of Three Rings (1966), Exiles of the Stars (1971), Flight In Yiktor (1986) and Dare to Go A-Hunting (1990); the Murdoc Jern sequence, comprising The Zero Stone (1968) and Uncharted Stars (1969); and the Star Ka'at sequence for younger readers, all written with Dorothy Madlee (1917-1980), comprising Star Ka'at (1976), Star Ka'at World (1978), Star Ka'ats and the Plant People (1979) and Star Ka'ats and the Winged Warriors (1981).Though begun in the 1960s, the Witch World sequence is essentially FANTASY - though it often uses such sf tropes as dimensional gates and force fields - and lacks any connection with the shared background; it soon became both her best known series and a model for her later work. Set centrally in the matriarchal land of Estcarp on an otherwise unnamed planet, and pleasingly sensitive to FEMINIST issues, these tales engage personable young protagonists in SWORD-AND-SORCERY adventures which tend to end well. Variously connected, the series titles include Witch World (1963), Web of the Witch World (1964) and Year of the Unicorn (1965), all 3 assembled as Annals of the Witch World (omni 1994),plusThree Against the Witch World (1965), Warlock of the Witch World (1967), Sorceress of the Witch World (1968), Spell of the Witch World(coll 1972), The Crystal Gryphon (1972), The Jargoon Pard (1974), Trey of Swords (1977), Zarsthor's Bane (1978), Lore of the Witch World (coll 1980), Gryphon in Glory (1981), Horn Crown (1981), 'Ware Hawk (1983), Were-Wrath (1984 chap), Gryphon's Eyrie (1984) with A.C. CRISPIN, Serpent's Tooth (1987 chap), The Gate of the Cat (1987), an internal sequence comprising Witch World: The Turning: Storms of Victory (1991) and Flight of Vengeance (1992) with P.M. Griffin and On Wings of Magic (collof linked stories 1994) with Patricia Matthews and Sasha Miller, and Songsmith (1992) with Crispin. There were also 4 SHARED-WORLD anthologiesedited or authorized by AN: Tales of the Witch World * (anth 1987), Tales of the Witch World II * (anth 1988), Four from the Witch World * (anth 1989) and Tales of the Witch World III * (anth 1990).Though her style hasmatured over the years, and her plots have tended to darken somewhat, from first to last an AN story will show the virtues of clear construction, a high degree of narrative control, protagonists whose qualities allow easy reader-identification and a Universe fundamentally responsive to virtue, good will and spunk. Her disinclination to publish short material in the sf magazines and her labelling for decades as a juvenile writer both worked to delay proper recognition of her stature, though her actual sales have been very considerable for decades. It has only recently been borne in upon the sf world that AN's 100 or more books - most of them in print - are for very many readers central to what the genre has to offer.

   JC

   Other works:

   Non-sf includes:Follow the Drum (1942); Rogue Reynard (1947); Scarface (1948); Huon of the Horn (1951); Murders for Sale (1954; with Grace Allen Hogarth, together as Allen Weston; vt Sneeze on Sunday 1992 as AN and Hogarth); Ten Mile Treasure (1981); Stand and Deliver(1984). Sf and fantasy:Sea Siege (1957); Star Gate (1958; exp 1963); Secret of the Lost Race (1959 dos; vt Wolfshead 1977 UK); Shadow Hawk (1960); The Sioux Spaceman (1960 dos); Star Hunter (1961 dos); Eye of the Monster (1962 dos); Night of Masks (1964); The X Factor (1965); the Magic fantasies, comprising Steel Magic (1965; vt Grey Magic 1967), Octagon Magic (1967) and Fur Magic (1968), all assembled as The Magic Books (omni1988); Operation Time Search (1967); Dark Piper (1968); Dread Companion (1970); Ice Crown (1970); Android at Arms (1971); Breed to Come (1972); Dragon Magic (1972); Here Abide Monsters (1973); Iron Cage (1974); Outside (1974); Lavender-Green Magic (1974); Merlin's Mirror (1975); The White Jade Fox (1975); The Day of the Ness (1975) with Michael Gilbert; No Night without Stars (1975); Knave of Dreams (1975); Wraiths of Time (1976); Red Hart Magic (1976); The Opal-Eyed Fan (1977); Quag Keep (1978); YurthBurden (1978); Seven Spells to Sunday (1979); Voorloper (1980); Moon Called (1982); Wheel of Stars (1983); Ride the Green Dragon (1985) with Phyllis Miller (1920-); Imperial Lady: A Fantasy of Han China (1989) with Susan M. SHWARTZ; Wizards' Worlds (coll 1989); Elvenbane: An Epic High Fantasy of the Halfblood Chronicles (1991) with Mercedes Lackey (1950-); The Jekyll Legacy (1990) with Robert BLOCH; Black Trillium (1990) with Marion Zimmer BRADLEY and Julian MAY, the second sequel to which, by AN alone, being Golden Trillium (1993); The Mark of the Cat (1992), based on the cat drawings of Karen Kuykendall; Empire of the Eagle (1993) with Susan Shwartz; Brother to Shadows (1993); The Hands of Llyr (1994).AsEditor: Bullard of the Space Patrol (coll of linked stories 1951) by Malcolm JAMESON; Space Service (anth 1953); Space Pioneers (anth 1954); Space Police (anth 1956); Gates to Tomorrow: An Introduction to Science Fiction (anth 1973) ed with Ernestine Donaldy; Small Shadows Creep (anth 1974); Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures (anth 1976); the Ithkar fantasies, all with Robert ADAMS, comprising Magic in Ithkar \#1 (anth 1985), \#2 (anth 1985), \#3 (anth 1986) and \#4 (anth 1987); Cat-fantastic(anth 1989), Cat-fantastic II (anth 1991) and Cat-fantastic III (anth 1994), all with Martin H. GREENBERG.

   About the author: "Andre Norton: Loss of Faith" (1971) by Rick Brooks in The Many Worlds of Andre Norton (coll 1974); intro by Sandra Miesel to the GREGG PRESS reissue (1977) of theWitch World series; Andre Norton: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980) by Roger C. SCHLOBIN; Andre Norton: Grand Master of the Witch-World: A Working Bibliography (1991 chap) by Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.

   See also: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; GAMES AND TOYS; HITLER WINS; LONGEVITY (IN WRITERS AND PUBLICATIONS); MAGIC; NEBULA; ROBERT HALE LIMITED; WOMEN SF WRITERS.