It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of one of our most beloved authors, Andre Norton. She passed away in her sleep early on the morning of March 17, 2005.
Ms. Norton’s health had been failing for some months, and she was hospitalized in February, just a few days before her 93rd birthday.
Fans around the world began sending Ms. Norton cards and flowers to show their love and appreciation for one of Science Fiction and Fantasy’s most prolific and long-lived authors.
Born Mary Alice Norton in 1912, she began submitting fiction to publishers in the 1930s. She quickly realized women were not being treated equally with men, and she assumed a number of pen names, or pseudonyms, including Andrew North and Andre Norton.
The Andre Norton name became the most important one, and Mary legally changed her name to Andre. In the 1960s she moved from Cleveland, OH, where she had worked as a librarian, to Winter Park, Florida. Her mother, who had served as long-time companion, first reader, and editor, moved with her.
For many years Andre wrote her own innovative, gripping stories about magic, science, fantastic cultures and civilizations, and almost always she told these stories from the points of view of young characters. Children, adolescents, and young men and women feature so prominently in her tales primarily because they are the discoverers of lost knowledge or new realizations. Through the eyes of youth, Andre’s readers experience the excitement and joys and fears of first discovery.
Andre spent her final years in Tennessee. She had acquired an extensive personal library of more than 10,000 books (many of them quite rare) covering history, socialogy, crafts, and many subjects which were extremely useful in her personal research. She opened the High Hallack research facility in the late 1990s and made it available to authors for help in writing their own books.
When Andre’s health began failing, the library was closed and its contents auctioned off. She moved one last time into the home of her friend and final companion, Sue Stewart, in 2004. After spending several days in the hospital, Andre elected to be taken home where she could spend her final days amid familiar surroundings, with her cats, and with her books.
Tor Books, her last publisher, rushed a special copy of her last book, Three Hands for Scorpio, to Andre so that she could see it before the end. She held the book closely and reportedly said, “What a lovely color of cobalt blue.” Less than a week later, she breathed her last as she slept.
Among the series of books Andre Norton is most well-known for are the Witch World books, the Time Trader books, the Solar Queen books, the Forerunner books, and the Beast Master books. At least three movies and a television series were inspired by the Beast Master.
Fans are sharing their thoughts and memories in The Andre Norton Forum.