Reply #33: Andre Norton.

[LWolf]

She didn't write great literature. Simple science fiction & fantasy stories; most modern readers of those genres haven't read her.

She DID, though, break into a male-dominated field, and pave the way for women authors who came after that.

<snip>

Born February 17, 1912 in Cleveland, Ohio, Alice Mary Norton has always had an affinity to the humanities. She started writing in her teens, inspired by a charismatic high school teacher. First contacts with the publishing world led her, as many other contemporary female writers targeting a male-dominated market, to choose a literary pseudonym. In 1934 she legally changed her name to Andre Alice. The androgynous Andre doesn't really say "male," though it lets people jump to their own conclusions.

<snip>

It has been said that science fiction is primarily philosophy, expounding the right to be different. Nowhere is that truer than in Ms. Norton's writing, where protagonists of many ethnicities have shown their intelligence and valor, and the value of all living things is affirmed.

The critics weren't quick to support her. But eventually they began to notice the consistent quality of her work. Today she is one of SF-F's most lauded female authors, the first woman to receive the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and the Nebula Grand Master Award.

Her success paved the way for other women to write in those fields. Writers such as C.J. Cherryh, Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey are inheritors of Andre Norton's legacy.

http://www.andre-norton.org/anorton/anlf.html

She passed away a few years ago.