Norman Matson

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 30, 1893, Norman Haghejm Matson was an American novelist and writer whose work ranged from mainstream fiction to fantasy. He is now most often remembered for The Passionate Witch (1941), a novel completed after Thorne Smith's death and later adapted into the film I Married a Witch.

Matson also had strong connections to the literary and theatrical world. He collaborated with Susan Glaspell on the play The Comic Artist, and biographical sources note that the two were married for a time. His writing appeared in major magazines as well, including The Atlantic, where he described his Midwestern working-class background in his own lively way.

He died in New York in October 1965. Although he is not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, his name still surfaces wherever readers trace the roots of witty American fantasy and the offbeat charm behind I Married a Witch.