Andre Norton Forum

Re: MAID AT ARMS

: .... According to Ms Norton, however, this story was written entirely by Ms Cushing, a friend who was ill at the deadline time to send it off to the publisher, so Ms Norton kindly tightened it up and got it ready for publication as a favor.

I tracked the correspondance through at Syracuse U. There is a series of letters from Enid Cushing to Andre Norton. They were discussing several books. One became SNOW SHADOW, and the others were CAROLINE and MAID AT ARMS. Much of the correspondance deals with Enid's trips to hospital. The hardest part in this was determining that "Ziedl" from Quebec was Enid Cushing.

What I understand through my discussions with Andre Norton is that when Enid became very ill, she had two books in draft form. MAID AT ARMS was almost complete, and just needed final polishing before publication, hence the solo Author. CAROLINE needed much more work.

There is a Folder: Caroline: White Paper copy: Paged by chapter through chap 14 (Pris goes away, but Caroline rejects Corbie)

From the way that Andre Norton usually worked, the above is probably professionally typed, but being paged by chapter usually means that it is only a second version.

1959 E.I.Cushing: Mentions GOTHIC LADY with the translation for the "sit-beside-him-wife";This is possibly a sequel to Snow Shadow or the original plot idea for Snow Shadow (P.Quebec, Canada)

1970 Ziedl? Quebec: [Enid Cushing] 5 letters 1971 Ziedl? Quebec: [Enid Cushing] 17 letters

If you are wondering what other treasures I found at Syracuse U, I've got the complete folder list - it's 39 pages. The University will make copies of items, for a fee, but they need to know the box and Folder numbers. [Heck - they measure their Andre Norton archives in linear FEET! That's 17 boxes & 16 feet.]

So, anyone writing Ms Norton, be assured that she will keep your letters. And please, for future archives, sign your letters with your full name.