Norton, Roy
Entry updated 9 January 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1869-1942) US author of many Westerns and some sf, beginning with The Vanishing Fleets (serialized at various dates during 1907 Associated Sunday Magazines; 1908), a Yellow Peril tale in which America is saved by a two scientists – father and daughter – who establish a Pax Aeronautica through the Invention of super "radioplanes" powered by Antigravity, which they also use to shift an invading Japanese armada (and other fleets) to mysterious locations; subsequently, America enforces universal peace from the air. In Norton's second sf novel, The Toll of the Sea (March-August 1909 Popular Magazine as "The Land of the Lost"; 1909; cut vt The Land of the Lost 1925), the Pacific figures again, this time changing its shape after a vast Disaster caused by predicted (but not credited) earthquake action; a Lost World is uncovered called Azonia, its inhabitants being advanced descendants of Atlantis. In The Flame: A Story of What Might Have Been (1916) a radioactive Ray, borne in an advanced Airship (both again powered by Antigravity), forces Germany into early surrender in World War One. The Caves of Treasure (20 September 1919 Popular Magazine as "The Glyphs" and 7 November-7 December 1919 Popular Magazine as "The Secret City"; fixup 1925) combines Lost World elements and advanced Inventions. Despite habitual repetitions of generic material, and a tendency to finger-point, Norton was a vivid writer with a strong narrative imagination. [JC]
Roy E Norton
born Kewanee, Illinois: 30 September 1869
died Freeport, New York: 28 June 1942
works
- The Vanishing Fleets (New York: D Appleton and Company, 1908) [serialized in various magazines in 1907 via Associated Sunday Magazines, a syndicated Sunday insert: hb/]
- The Toll of the Sea (New York: D Appleton and Company, 1909) [first appeared March-August 1909 Popular Magazine as "The Land of the Lost": hb/]
- The Land of the Lost (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925) [cut vt of the above: hb/uncredited]
- The Flame: A Story of What Might Have Been (London: Mills and Boon, 1916) [hb/]
- The Caves of Treasure (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925) [fixup: first appeared 20 September 1919 Popular Magazine as "The Glyphs" and 7 November-7 December 1919 Popular Magazine as "The Secret City": hb/]
- The Glyphs (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2020) [first appeared 20 September 1919 Popular Magazine: in the publisher's Lost World-Lost Race series: pb/V E Pyles]
about the author
- Everett F Bleiler. Science-Fiction: The Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-Fiction Stories ... (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1990) [nonfiction: p564-567: hb/nonpictorial]
- H Bruce Franklin. War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) [nonfiction: p41-44: hb/Ben Santora]
links
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