Andre Norton's Titles
Alphabetical
Original drawing by Jack Gaughan 1975? from one of Andre's scrapbooks
Some Words from Andre
An Interview of Andre Norton in Starlog magazine.
STARLOG: Were you surprised when Life magazine declared you to be the grand dame of science fiction?
ANDRE NORTON: (Laughs.) Of course! -- It was a great honor. Their photographer wanted to take an unusual picture of me for that feature, so I had to sit perfectly still for a long time by candlelight, with one of my cats in my arms, and a mirror on the table before me, I was in my library, surrounded by books. I think the idea was for me to look rather mysterious and arcane.
STARLOG: Did you also know that STARLOG named you as one of the 100 Most Important People in Science Fiction and Fantasy?
NORTON: Yes, STARLOG sent me a copy of that issue. I was very pleased and grateful to find my name listed along with people like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.
STARLOG: How many books have you had published?
NORTON: I counted them up, because everyone always asks. There are 106 solo novels, 12 anthologies I’ve edited, and another 12 books written in collaboration with other writers—I24. *
STARLOG: With more on the way.
NORTON: Oh, yes. Currently, I’m involved in at least seven or eight other book projects, either alone, or with collaborators. And there are several books that I’ve turned in that haven’t been released yet by the publisher.
STARLOG: That’s truly an impressive body of work. When did you begin writing? What was your first book?
NORTON: I wrote my first book, Ralestone Luck, when I was still in high school, but that was actually the second one I sold. My first published novel was The Prince Commands, which was an adventure story in the tradition of Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda. It was about a young man who travels to a small fictional country in Europe, and finds adventure there, helping the rightful heir regain his throne. It was published in 1934, when those kinds of stories were very popular. Tor recently rereleased it.
STARLOG: Did you always want to be a writer?
NORTON: No, in the beginning, my ambition was to be a history teacher. I never thought I would be able to support myself with my writing, so in the early years, I would publish a book every couple of years or so. It wasn't until my health failed and I wasn‘t able to continue working outside my home as a librarian that I really sat down to see if I could support myself—and my elderly parents—as a writer. Before circumstances forced mc into it, I didn‘t believe it would be possible to make a decent living from my writing. Back when I first began writing, authors made very little for a book—though the dollar went much farther in those days, too! A standard advance was only a few hundred dollars. (Laughs.) I remember that one year, my total income from writing was 37 cents!
STARLOG: Why did you use the name "Andre?"
NORTON: Because, when I first began writing, I knew that my audience would be mostly teenaged boys, and l believed that using a "masculine" name—actually, "Andre" without the accent is the feminine version of the name, though not many people seem to know that—anyway, I believed doing so would be the right choice for the audience I was writing to please. Many other women authors reached the same conclusion-Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore. So, for years, most people thought l was a man. But these days, it doesn't seem to matter whether you’re a man or a woman, just how well you can tell a story, which is the way it should be. That’s how l like to think of myself. . .as a storyteller.
Excerpt from Andre Norton: Sorceress of the Witch World, by A.C. Crispin, appeared in Starlog: no.146 & no.147 [a two part article] September 1989 interview with Andre Norton
