Alice Mary Norton (1912-2005) was an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy author, poet and editor.
Born and educated in Cleveland, Ohio, she began writing and editing at a young age, producing her first novel (which became her second published book) while still in high school. She attended Western Reserve University, although she never graduated due to finances. She worked as assistant librarian and children's librarian at the Cleveland Public Libraries from 1932-1950, working in 38 of their 40 branches, with a brief interruption during World War II to work at the Library of Congress. She left the Cleveland Public Libraries in 1950 to be a reader for Gnome Press, a science fiction publishing house in Hicksville, Long Island, but by 1958 she had published 23 novels and several short stories, and felt confident enough to devote her full time to freelance writing.
Although best known as a science fiction writer under the pseudonym Andre Norton (her other pen name is Andrew North), she has also written mystery, fantasy, historical novels, and westerns. Ms. Norton wrote more than 130 novels, nearly one hundred short stories, and edited numerous anthologies in the science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, and western genres, and her work has been translated into eight languages, including Arabic. She was the first woman to be a Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) Grand Master and to be inducted in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. She received Skylark, Balrog, and World Fantasy awards, and was the first woman to win the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy award. She was a member of the Women's National Book Association, Theta Sigma Phi, and encouraged beginning writers with "High Hallack," a retreat and research library for writers which she opened and ran from 1999-2004. The SFWA named an award in her honor, the Andre Norton Award for young adult novels, first given in 2006.
From the guide to the Andre (Alice Mary) Norton Papers, 1959-1978, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
