131 typewritten letters, signed (TLsS), 123 of which are dated from 2 September 1976 to 7 April 2004, and 8 of which are undated, 4 with dates from August 2004 to October 2004 written in pencil at the top in Sandra Miesel's hand, totaling 180 pages; 5 handwritten letters, signed (ALsS), dated from 23 March 2003 to 21 June 2004, 1 undated but clearly written in January 2005, totaling 8 pages; 4 typewritten notes, signed (TNsS), dated from 9 December 1980 to 2 July 1998; 5 handwritten notes, signed (ANsS), all undated; and 1 typewritten request for biographical information for an ITHKAR anthology, all to Sandra Miesel. Accompanied by 1 typewritten note, signed (TNS) from Norton to Richard McEnroe, dated 23 May 1981; 1 typewritten note, signed (TNS) from Norton to Martin Greenberg, undated; 1 typewritten note, signed (TNS) to Jim Baen, dated 1 September 2000; 30 holiday greeting cards from Norton to Miesel; carbons of 15 letters from Miesel to Norton; 1 typewritten letter, unsigned, dated 10 October 1985, from Miesel to Norton; 2 typewritten notes, signed (TNsS), dated 4 August 1986 and 13 May 1988, from Ingrid Zeirhut to Miesel; 1 handwritten note, signed (ANS), dated 12 May 2004, from Sue Stewart to Miesel; 1 flyer for the opening ceremony for the High Hallack Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library; 1 brochure for the High Hallack Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library; 1 photocopy of a solicitation for submissions for an anthology of cat fiction; 4 photographs of Norton's cats; 8 FAR SIDE cartoons clipped from periodicals; 1 photocopy of Miesel's introduction to the Gregg Press edition of Norton's WITCH WORLD novels; 1 copy of LAN'S LANTERN #16 and NIEKAS SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY #40, fanzine issues focused on Norton; 1 copy of Walden Books' XIGNALS Vol. XI (1985) featuring an interview with Norton; 1 copy of THE NORTON NEWSLETTER #2 and #3, along with a subscription solicitation letter; a photocopy of Norton' s obituary from LOCUS (April 2005); and an envelope postmarked 11 April 2005 with an announcement of Norton's death enclosed with a memorial keepsake featuring Steven R. Vogel's poem "The Books I Love" and a thank you note from Sue Stewart to all of Norton's friends and fans. A total of 194 pieces. Writter and critic Sandra Miesel began corresponding with Andre Norton (1912-2005) in September of 1976 while working on her introduction to the Gregg Press editions of Norton's WITCH WORLD novels. The two continued their correspondence until January 2005, just two months prior to Norton's death from congestive heart failure at age 93. Spanning the final three decades of her long, distinguished career, Norton's correspondence provides fascinating insights into her relationship with the science fiction and fantasy communities, including publishers and fandom, and her anxieties about her waning abilities as an author because of a steady stream of health issues she struggles with starting in her early sixties. Despite her consistent fears that her best years as a writer are behind her, Norton nevertheless plunges herself into numerous projects throughout her seventies, eighties, and nineties, including various anthology series, such as ITHKAR (1985-1987) and CATFANTASTIQUE (1989-1999), and her numerous collaborations with younger female authors, such as A. C. Crispin, Mercedes Lackey, Lyn McConchie, and Sasha Miller, writers who not only co-author several BEAST MASTER and WITCH WORLD novels but also who co-create new series such as THE HALFBLOOD CHRONICLES (1991-2002) and THE CYLCE OF OAK, YEW, ASH, and ROWAN (2000-2008). Norton's most intense period of correspondence with Miesel, from 2000 to 2005, is an astonishing testament to Norton's creativity, work ethic, and indomitable spirit as she devotes her time to numerous projects to support the High Hallack Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library, a writer's retreat which she opens in 1999 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. During this period, Norton continues reading manuscripts from young, unpublished writers; completes her final two solo novels, THE YEAR OF THE RAT (2002) and THREE HANDS FOR SCORPIO (2005); enjoys a late-career renaissance when Jim Baen and Tor release omnibus editions of her most significant science fiction series from the 1950s and 1960s, including the THE TIME TRADERS, CENTRAL CONTROL, and JANUS; and sees her WITCH WORLD novels issued as eBooks. When she first writes Miesel in September of 1976, Norton is at a point in her career when she feels she has not only been unjustly neglected by critics and scholars, but also marginalized by fandom and contemporary writers for her strong stance against portrayals of "kinky sex" and lesbianism in the sword and sorcery genre in which a growing number of LGBTQ+ authors have begun to work. Overjoyed by Miesel's critical assessment of her in the introduction to the WITCH WORLD series, Norton responds by writing of her career, "I am quite used to having my work overlooked in the review columns of all s-f magazines or else carefully ripped to pieces … Thus to me, it means a lot to have someone understand so well what I am trying to do … When one has worked as hard and as long as I have and yet have nearly this complete silence from the field, it can be rather discouraging … I have always tried to do my best and to be met with this continual belittlement is baffling" (2 August 1977). In addition to such critical neglect, Norton is well aware that her rejection of lesbianism in fantasy fiction, which has made her a very unpopular figure in certain circles, damages her reputation even further. Norton is convinced that writing that normalizes or encourages such behavior in young, impressionable readers is immoral: "[T]his is a field in which there are many young readers and to encourage anyone to think that perverse relationships are to be desired and enjoyed with amoral impunity i[s] to me very wrong indeed … I am disappointed when a writer of skill takes such a twisted subject and presents it as a to-be-desired lifestyle … Their own personal lives can be what they wish, but to extol such relationships in their work is wrong " (11 July 1981). Norton specifically laments the "surge of Lesbian-take over in the fantasy field" as something that "spoils and cheapens all I have worked for for so many years and I am very unhappy about it" (11 December 1981). When no one will agree to participate in a Chicon panel in 1982 on her work, Norton connects her wholesale rejection by fans and writers to her unpopular view of lesbianism: "I know that I have aroused feeling in the field by my stand on kinky sex in books and I do not doubt that I am NOT in favor now … I have never had many supporters among the general writers in the field -- as has been brought home to me many times" (3 August 1982). Ironically, some of the authors, such as Jessica Amanda Salmonson, who actually champion Norton at this time as a foundational feminist figure in speculative fiction, are the very individuals Norton's problematic views target. While she is today undeniably regarded as a key early feminist science fiction and fantasy author, Norton's rejection of lesbianism in sword and sorcery fiction, a genre to which Norton herself has contributed substantially, merits further study. Norton's position on representations of alternative sexuality and lifestyles also conflicts directly with her admiration for her later collaborations with Mercedes Lackey, a fantasy author whose work is currently widely lauded for its depictions of homosexual and lesbian characters. Given her assessment of her contentious standing among fans and writers in the early 1980s, Norton's selection as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1983 must have come as both a shock and a relief. As one of the pioneering authors of juvenile science fiction, Norton's first novel in this field was published in the 1950s by Harcourt, Brace & Company, a mainstream publisher, rather than a genre specialty press. Because her career in science fiction and fantasy spans six decades, from the last gasp of the pulp magazines to the advent of eBooks, the insights Norton's letters provide into her relationships with editors and publishers are particularly illuminating. Not surprisingly, her earliest conflicts stem from working in a field that is dominated by men who, as editors and publishers, have a clear bias about science fiction. As Norton emphasizes, "The absence of women in the early books was due to one factor -- the editors considered science fiction then to appeal to only masculine readers and that it must be adventure. That, by the standards of the time, ruled out feminine characters except for a bare minimum. [My] first book in the field with a heroine -- ORDEAL IN OTHERWHERE [1964]--was protested by the editor who accepted it only reluctantly and said it would not sell. There simply was not a market -- according to the editors -- for books with girl or women characters at that time" (22 October 1977). Much later in her career after she is well-established, Norton's letters reveal how she, like any working writer, is still subject to the economic whims of the publishing industry as defined by popular trends and audience demand. In the midst of the horror boom in the 1980s, for example, when Norton is working on a paper doll book, she learns that "the only thing they really go for now is a ghost or horror story. Thus we have a family curse and ghosts coming up -- loosely based on the Cherry Valley Massacre" (20 July 1982). Even with regard to WITCH WORLD, her most popular series, Norton notes how a completed WITCH WORLD index is never published because editors don't "think the series was attractive enough to buyers … to make it worth their while. Witch World did not turn out to be a cult offering as so many such as Pern and the others did" (13 July 2003). Likewise, Norton is often frustrated over the concessions she has to make to publisher's marketing decisions with dust jacket designs that have nothing to do with the content of her novels or that misrepresent them: "Publishers seem to have a thing about jackets. I think the company strives to capture the picture as far from the story as possible. I have suffered from this for years. TOR [sic] is the worst offender in the field. I was sent a dreadful one a couple of months back which was supposed to stand for a special edition of Witch World. Simon Tregarth appeared to be a teenager who did not quite know what he was doing and Jaelithe was a steamy seducer -- awful it was and I protested but I don't think they listened" (5 October 2001). Norton's sharpest criticism of the publishing industry occurs while she is working on her final novel, THE THREE HANDS OF SCORPIO. "I have seven chapters done," she writes," but will have to keep at it steadily to be done by fall. Do not have any publishers interested in it as yet but can always hope it will sell. In the publishing world no one can really count on anything" (26 February 2001). The final five years of Norton's correspondence with Miesel, written when the author is in her late eighties and early nineties, contains a wealth of details about her working habits, final writing and editing projects, mentoring new writers, and views on political and social events, such as 9/11 and the War on Terror. As lucid and sharp as ever, Norton refuses to succumb to mounting health issues, notably her severe arthritis, which now requires her to wear medical gloves designed to reduce the pain in her hands so she can continue to type. Despite being aware of her advanced age and unstable health, Norton's publisher still takes several years to respond to her regarding her manuscript for THE THREE HANDS OF SCORPIO and only does so due to Norton's persistence. Even then, the editing and revision process continues to drag on: "I had dumped on me last Saturday the big ms. of my [l]ast novel --- originally turned in to TOR three years ago where it just sat on one of their shelves. After much snarling I was finally able to get some action. They returned it for some revision last February. I worked hard to get it back as soon as possible -- heard no more about it. Now it has been returned to me with page after page of [q]uestions -- mainly silly picking ones about capital [l]etters and I have to go through it word by word" (undated letter from August 2004). Norton's characteristic faith in humanity to overcome any obstacle, a defining trait of her fiction, is also greatly tested during this period of her life. Having lived through every domestic and international conflict since World War I, Norton nevertheless views the early 21st century as an increasingly "dark time." In discussing the novels of Tom Clancy, she writes, somewhat revealingly, "Many of the plots are akin to what faces us now. I said … the other day that we should get Clancy as president. His logical approach to disaster and the refusal of his main character to be stirred by politics is what we need at present" (24 February 2003). Furthermore, Norton is increasingly aware that her own values and beliefs, shaped during the first half of the 20th century, place her at odds with contemporary cultural trends and social mores. While evaluating manuscripts from unpublished novice writers of young adult fiction, she finds herself particularly troubled by one novel that is "close to reality. But I am too far removed from that kind of life now to understand it. The more I read the less I liked the protagonist and it had a very downbeat ending. It will be hard to criticize fairly" (7 July 2002). Likewise, Norton dislikes Phillip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS (1995-2000), stressing that "although I am not a fundamentalist as to religion … the attitude of this writer is certainly NOT acceptable" (15 July 2003), nor she does find J. K. Rowling's HARRY POTTER series (1997-2007) compelling enough to continue beyond the third book. By contrast, Norton praises Tamora Pierce's PROTECTOR OF THE SMALL (1999-2002) as "a YA fantasy series which I think is the best I have ever come across … She is certainly an excellent writer and does NOT cling to old clichés as so many writers do when plotting" (22 August 2003). Despite the financial necessity of closing the High Hallack Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library in late 2003, Norton remains excited about her continued collaborations with younger female authors and even starts work on a collection of occult detective stories set in the Victorian era. While she remains undaunted by her declining health and potential future financial issues, Norton's one area of genuine concern is a persistent rumor that she is senile, can no longer write, and is being taken advantage of by those around her. "I was given to understand," she reveals to Miesel, "that the story is going about that I am senile and unable to do things for myself, that Rusted Armor [a collaboration with Caroline Filke] is no good and I am being used in various ways. Since I get out very little and do not hear general gossip in the field this came to me as a shock. If anything is said to you about these matters please let me know as well as who is passing these rumors about" (27 August 2002). Throughout her letters, Norton's keen eye for detail and fine sense of phrasing are on full display as is her wide range of interests, most of which are directly related to research she conducts for her writing. Recurring topics include ancient world history, jewelry making, needlecraft, and medieval culture, particularly the lives of women in various strata of society. The sense of deep kinship that Norton feels with Miesel is evidenced by Norton's openness about family issues, health concerns, and financial setbacks. The letters are constantly surprising as Norton relates fascinating anecdotes, such as author Katherine Kurtz moving into a haunted house or Hitler's quest for the Spear of Longinus, as well as finely detailed observations of the flora and fauna wherever she lives, including a beautifully phrased description of an invasive flesh-eating plant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee -- "a plant which shows only small yellow flowers on short hair thin stems above the surface of the ground. The roots are carnivorous and eat worms, beetles, and small above ground creatures which can be overcome one week in a year by the perfume given out by the flowers" (29 October 2003). Norton's correspondence with Miesel offers a compelling look into a pioneering science fiction and fantasy author who published her first work, a juvenile historical novel, in 1934 at age 22 and her first science fiction story in 1947 at age 35, an author who continued to write and edit into her early nineties, grappling with cultural and societal changes for nearly 70 years as a professional writer. The material is in fine condition overall. (#170289).
Price: $22,500.00
"Coming Soon"