Star Hunter (Paperback)

Andre Norton was an extremely popular and prolific science fiction and fantasy author whose writing career spanned seven decades. Born in 1912 as Alice Mary Norton, she began working as a librarian when she was 18, and continued that career for 20 years, interrupted by a brief period working for the Library of Congress and then operating a mystery bookstore. Norton's writing career initially focused on historical and adventure fiction for juveniles; her first novel, THE PRINCE COMMANDS, was published in 1934. In that year, she legally changed her name to Andre, having been advised that a male-sounding name would be more appealing to her audience, which was presumed to be entirely male. 1952 saw the publication of her first science fiction novel, STAR MAN'S SON, 2250 A.D.(later retitled DAYBREAK: 2250 A.D.) Her first series was the Solar Queen cycle, the last three installments of which were written in the 1990s after a more than 20-year break. In 1963, she launched her most famous series, Witch World, with the novel of the same name; more than 30 sequels followed. Norton did not receive critical acclaim from her peers in the science fiction community until quite late in life, probably because her work was primarily marketed toward children and young adults. However, she was the first woman to win each of two prestigious awards for lifetime achievement: the Gandalf Grand Master, awarded by the World Science Fiction Society in 1977, and Grand Master, given to her by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1983. In February, 2005, SFWA created a new award in her honor, the Andre Norton Award, to be presented to an outstanding fantasy or science fiction novel for young adults. Norton wrote or collaborated on over 100 genre novels (and many non-genre ones). She continued to write until nearly the end of her life, receiving a publisher's copy of her final solo-authored book, THREE HANDS FOR SCORPIO, just days before she died on March 16, 2005, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.