author
James Norman
1912–1983
A widely traveled American novelist and nonfiction writer, he drew on war reporting, life in Mexico, and a deep curiosity about history and language. His books range from crime fiction to explorations of ancient writing, giving his work an adventurous, cross-cultural feel.
1 Audiobook
A Planet for Your Thoughts
by James Norman
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1912 as James Norman Schmidt, he later wrote under the name James Norman. Archival records from Ohio University describe a life that stretched across journalism, fiction, and nonfiction, and note that his papers document his career as an author from the 1930s through his death in 1983.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army as a military correspondent in the Pacific. Later accounts about his life say he spent time in Los Angeles before moving to Mexico City in 1948, an experience that seems to have shaped the international settings and outlook of much of his work.
He published across several genres, including novels and works of popular history and language. One of his better-known nonfiction books is Ancestral Voices: Decoding Ancient Languages (1975), which reflects his interest in how people recover and interpret the distant past.