{"id":4003,"date":"2012-03-18T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4003"},"modified":"2012-03-18T17:38:08","modified_gmt":"2012-03-18T23:38:08","slug":"andre-norton-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4003","title":{"rendered":"Andre Norton Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was about 11 years old, I wandered up to the science fiction section of a hole-in-the-wall branch of the Jefferson County (Colorado) Public Library<\/a>. I came away with two books by the author Andre Norton<\/a>, The Time Traders <\/em>and Galactic Derelict.<\/em><\/p>\n

Written in the late 1950s, they are now considered part of the “Ross Murdock series<\/a>,” also known as the “Time Trader series<\/a>.” The better-known (?)\u00a0 Witch World<\/em> series<\/a> was just coming out, and I did not encounter them until later.<\/p>\n

When I discovered later that “Andre” was a woman first known as Mary Ann Norton, I briefly had her confused with the English writer Mary Norton who wrote the “Borrowers” series<\/a>, which my older sisters had read.<\/p>\n

They were both fantasy series, after all, and so perhaps “Andre” was her space-opera pen name and “Mary” was her “cozy” pen name \u2014 or so I reasoned. I was totally wrong \u2014 they were completely different people.<\/p>\n

So last week I was in a nearby city’s public library, looking for an SF title that someone had recommended, and there on the shelf was a newer edition of Time Traders<\/em> and Galactic Derelict<\/em> bound together.<\/p>\n

Time Traders<\/em> had been my first encounter with the term, the “Beaker People<\/a>.”\u00a0 Norton makes this ancient culture (or cultural period<\/a>) into a “guild of free traders.” (SF writers seem to like guilds of free traders \u2014 it’s an enduring meme.)<\/p>\n

So if life were a novel, I would have carried that memory forward and become an archaeologist. Didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

The plot I did not remember at all, just a couple of images. There are lots of near-misses and close escapes, with language like this: “A white-hot flash of pain scored his upper arm.”<\/p>\n

What I did not<\/em> remember was that the time travelers encounter Neolithic conflict between the religion of the Great Mother, served by priestesses at megalithic sites, and the sky\/storm god Lurgha, whose worship is pushing its way in and which is exploited by their Russian counterparts. (There is a Cold War<\/a> atmosphere, despite the 21st-century setting.)<\/p>\n

It’s not a major plot element, but did it plant a seed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was about 11 years old, I wandered up to the science fiction section of a hole-in-the-wall branch of the Jefferson County (Colorado) Public Library. I came away with two books by the author Andre Norton, The Time Traders and Galactic Derelict. Written in the late 1950s, they are now considered part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-4003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-12z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14073,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14073","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":0},"title":"Did an English Children’s Author Describe the House Wights?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A miniature wood stove for sale on eBay. When I was 5, my older sisters were 12 and 15. Sarah, then 12, was reading Mary Norton's \"Borrowers\" books, as her older sister probably had before her. Don't confuse this English Mary Norton (1903\u20131992) with the prolific American SF\/fantasy writer Alice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"children\"","block_context":{"text":"children","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=children"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sample-woodstove.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sample-woodstove.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sample-woodstove.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sample-woodstove.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sample-woodstove.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11724","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":1},"title":"Rosaleen Norton Documentary Film about to Release","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Witch of Kings Cross, a documentary on the life of Australian artist and witch Rosaleen Norton (1917\u20131979), directed by Sonia Bible, is being premiered in Paris as part of L'Estrange Festival. Often described as Australia's \"most persecuted artist,\" Norton blended art and magic in a way often called \"demonic,\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/rosaleen-norton-pie.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=240","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":2},"title":"The Rehabilitation of Rosaleen Norton","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the 1950s, the artist and occultist Rosaleen Norton was the witchcraft scene in Australia, at least according to some of the older books I have read. Her relationship with Sir Eugene Goosens, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, was a scandal, as were her paintings, some of which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4555,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4555","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":3},"title":"The Bushranger and the Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A quirky story has been filtering out of Australia in bits and pieces. First came the discovery of the headless skeleton of Ned Kelly (1854\u20131880), the country's most infamous bushranger (outlaw) of the 19th century, which involved DNA matching and other modern techniques. Then his descendents appealed for whoever had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6017,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6017","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":4},"title":"Nevil Drury 1947\u20132013","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Nevil Drury, well-known Australian writer and teacher on magical and esoteric topics, died yesterday at home of cancer and liver failure. I had the experience of working with not long ago when he did an article for The Pomegranate: the International Journal of Pagan Studies on \"The Magical Cosmology of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"drury","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/drury.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":4003,"position":5},"title":"Ronald Hutton Responds to His Critics","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Even before his interview with Australian scholar\/blogger Caroline Tully, Ronald Hutton had written a lengthy article for The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies titled \"Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View.\" It is now available as a free download from Equinox Publishing. In it, Professor Hutton discusses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4009,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003\/revisions\/4009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}