Long Fiction:
The Prince Commands, 1934
Ralestone Luck, 1938
Star Man’s Son, 2250
The Beast Master, 1959
Judgement on Janus, 1963
Witch World, 1963
Web of the Witch World, 1964
Three Against the Witch World, 1965
Year of the Unicorn, 1965
Warlock of the Witch World, 1967
Sorceress of the Witch World, 1968
The Zero Stone, 1968
Uncharted Stars, 1969
Ice Crown, 1970
Forerunner Foray, 1973
Iron Cage, 1974
Merlin’s Mirror, 1975
Wraiths of Time, 1976
Trey of Swords, 1977
Forerunner, 1981
’Ware Hawk, 1983
Gate of the Cat, 1987
Four from the Witch World, 1989
Black Trillium, 1990 (with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May)
Storms of Victory, 1991 (with P. M. Griffin)
Flight of Vengeance, 1992 (with Griffin and Mary H. Schaub)
Fur Magic, 1992
The Mark of the Cat, 1992
Songsmith, 1992 (with A. C. Crispin)
Brother to Shadows, 1993
Empire of the Eagle, 1993 (with Susan Schwartz)
Golden Trillium, 1993
Redline the Stars, 1993 (with Griffin)
Annals of the Witch World, 1994 (includes Witch World, Web of the Witch, and Year of the Unicorn)
The Hands of Lyr, 1994
On Wings of Magic, 1994 (with Patricia Matthews and Sasha Miller)
Elvenblood: An Epic High Fantasy, 1995 (with Mercedes Lackey)
Firehand, 1995 (with Griffin)
The Key of the Keplian, 1995 (with Lyn McConchie)
Mirror of Destiny, 1995
Magestone, 1996 (with Schaub)
The Warding of Witch World, 1996
A Mind for Trade: A Great New Solar Queen Adventure, 1997 (with Sherwood Smith)
Ciara’s Song, 1998 (with McConchie)
Scent of Magic, 1998
Echoes in Time: A New Time Traders Adventure, 1999 (with Smith)
The Shadow of Albion, 1999 (with Rosemary Edghill)
Wind in the Stone, 1999
To the King a Daughter, 2000 (with Miller)
Time Traders, 2000
Knight or Knave, 2001 (with Miller)
Leopard in Exile, 2001 (with Edghill)
Star Soldiers, 2001
Time Traders II, 2001
A Crown Disowned, 2002 (with Miller)
The Elevenborn, 2002 (with Lackey)
Short Fiction:
High Sorcery, 1970
Garan the Eternal, 1972
The Many Worlds of Andre Norton, 1974 (Roger Elwood, editor; also known as The Book of Andre Norton)
Perilous Dreams, 1976
Wizard’s Worlds, 1989 (Irene Zierhut, editor)
Nonfiction:
Bertie and May, 1969 (with Bertha Stemm Norton)
Children’s/Young Adult Literature:
The Sword Is Drawn, 1944
Scarface, 1948
Sword in Sheath, 1949
Star Ka’at, 1976 (with Dorothy Madlee)
Star Ka’at World, 1978 (with Madlee)
Star Ka’ats and the Plant People, 1979 (with Madlee)
Star Ka’ats and the Winged Warriors, 1981 (with Madlee)
The Monster’s Legacy, 1996
Edited Texts:
Magic in Ithkar, 1985 (with Robert Adams)
Magic in Ithkar 2, 1985 (with Adams)
Magic in Ithkar 3, 1986 (with Adams)
Magic in Ithkar 4, 1987 (with Adams)
Tales of the Witch World, 1987
Tales of the Witch World 2, 1988
Catfantastic, 1989 (with Martin H. Greenberg)
Grand Masters’ Choice, 1989
Tales of the Witch World 3, 1990
Catfantastic II, 1991 (with Greenberg)
Catfantastic III, 1994 (with Greenberg)
Catfantastic IV, 1996 (with Greenberg)
Catfantastic V, 1999 (with Greenberg)
Andre Norton, though she has written in many fields, is best known for her science-fiction and fantasy novels. She was one of the first women writers, and easily one of the most popular writers, in these fields. Born Alice Mary Norton, she was exposed to books and literature at an early age. Her mother read to her, starting with poetry and, by the time she was five, Little Women. She wrote her first novel while in high school. In 1934, she published The Prince Commands, her second-written novel but the first one sold. In 1938, she revised her first novel and published it as Ralestone Luck. With the publication of these books, Norton legally took the name Andre instead of Alice Mary. Andre was a more androgenous name, which she believed she needed for success in the young adult adventure market.
While she was selling her first novels, Norton was also working as a children’s librarian at the Cleveland Public Library. She worked there from 1930 to 1951, with one year off to work as a special librarian for the Library of Congress and to try her hand at owning a bookstore. After leaving the library, she spent some years as an editor for Gnome Press before becoming a full-time writer in 1958. During her time as a librarian, she wrote young adult adventure stories such as The Sword Is Drawn and Scarface. The Sword Is Drawn received an award from the Dutch government, and its sequel, Sword in Sheath, was named an Ohiana Junior Book honor book.
Her first science-fiction novel, Star Man’s Son, 2250
Norton continued to publish science fiction and fantasy regularly. For her Solar Queen series, she adopted the pseudonym of Andrew North, though most of her books appear under her own name. Her novels are filled with wondrous planets, strange alien races such as the telepathic and reptilian Zacathans, and strong heroes and heroines. Quite often, her characters are outcasts from normal society, and they sometimes possess psychic powers or some other ability that sets them apart. Her novels are also filled with intelligent animals that help the main characters in their conflicts.
In 1963, Norton published Witch World, the first book in her most successful series. The Witch World is populated by strange creatures and people with amazing powers. Many of the creatures have origins in folklore, while others seem to have sprung purely from the author’s mind. The powers of Light and Dark are at constant war with each other and in more recent novels, such as Songsmith (written with A. C. Crispin), she hints that the conflict is nearing a conclusion. Norton has published more than twenty books with the Witch World as a setting, including some collaborations.
Many of Norton’s novels, including Witch World and Judgement on Janus, include antitechnology themes. She views the machine, especially the computer, as suspicious, if not entirely evil. She freely admits to this viewpoint, believing that humans lost out during the Industrial Revolution by surrendering to the machine.
Norton has won many awards for her work. Besides awards for individual novels, Norton’s two most prestigious awards are for her lifetime accomplishments as a writer: In 1977, she won the Gandalf Master of Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement, and in 1984 the Science Fiction Writers of America named her a Grand Master of Science Fiction (a Nebula award), the first woman to achieve that honor. She was named to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Hall of Fame in 1996.
With more than one hundred titles to her name, Andre Norton remains one of the most prolific and popular science-fiction and fantasy writers ever. In addition to her many individual and collaborative works, Norton also has taken an interest in helping others, especially women, with their writing careers. The High Hallack Genre Writers’ Research and Reference Library (named after a place in the Witch World) officially opened in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on February 28, 1999. Norton created this library and retreat as a place where authors can go to work on their novels; she also made it her residence.