Ten years ago today, Andre Norton passed away, by then already a legend among science fiction and fantasy writers. Over the course of her career, her prolific output helped to establish speculative young adult literature, bringing countless readers (not to mention future authors!) into the genre through a crack in the doorway of childhood.

She was born Alice Mary Norton in Cleveland on February 17th, 1912. From an early age, her parents encouraged her to read, and through frequent trips to the library, she fell in love with fantasy stories, especially L. Frank Baum tales of the Land of Oz. As an adult, she worked as a journalist and author, publishing her first novel in 1934. She was a bookseller, researcher, and librarian throughout the 1930s and 1940s, before turning to writing full time by the ’60s. And full-time doesn’t begin to cover it: over the next half-century, she published hundreds of books, entering the SF/F field along with a new generation of female authors, including Margaret St. Clair, Katherine MacLean, and Anne McCaffrey.

She left behind an incredible legacy, one that has touched millions of readers. Norton’s works were aimed at the younger ones. While publications like Amazing Stories and Robert Heinlein and other authors wrote for the youth market, Andre Norton wrote so much, and published so often, that through sheer force, she recruited generations of readers into science fictional worlds. Throughout science fiction’s long history, there are a few constant, shared experiences between authors and readers: they tend to discover science fiction and fantasy at an early age, and once they begin reading it, they never stop. They take in the possibilities, fantastic worlds, characters, and technology, and they are inspired to write stories of their own. Science fiction and fantasy are genres that often find a shared lineage within their boundaries (porous as they are) as one combination of authors inspires the next. The number of authors who owe their careers to Norton is, therefore, immense, but incalculable.

Author Alethea Kontis remembered Norton fondly in a blog post shortly after her death: “She was a Great Lady and a Grand Dame and a thousand other things I could only hope to be. But she was also a nice woman, an incredibly humble person, a librarian, and a lover of books.”

Norton’s love of books was legendary, in fact—she devoured stories caught up in paper, ink, and glue, stories that inspired her own work, which, in turn, have inspired others. She collected many of them in a research library focused extensively on speculative fiction, which happened to be located in her garage: the High Hallack Genre Writer’s Research and Reference Library. Containing 10,000 titles, the library was open to science fiction professionals researching the genre. Kontis recalled her experience visiting the library: “I can look back on the totally surreal and unique experience of having the Grand Dame of Science Fiction all to myself for a few hours. I smile at the image of us scooting around High Hallack in desk chairs as she gave me the grand tour. I remember her sparkly voice as she read to me passages from a humorous book of ridiculous and true answers to actual test questions.” The library operated until 2004, when Norton’s health declined and forced her to close the facility down.

The creation of the High Hallack Genre Writer’s Research and Reference Library demonstrated a life-long devotion to reading. It is more than a room full of books: it’s a curated collection, one that was designed to give back to the genre that had given her so much. Hundreds of authors learned from her, and through their experiences, she lives on, embodied in the stories she helped to inspire.

In 2005, shortly before Norton’s death, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced the creation of the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Literature, recognizing the importance of books aimed at younger readers. In an interview, writer E. C. Myers noted that the award, “represents a growing awareness and interest in children’s fiction, and brings it a sense of legitimacy, since many people still look at YA as somehow less worthy than books for older readers.”

Norton’s legacy lives on, a decade after her passing, with SF/F books directed at younger audiences commanding an ever-growing piece of the publishing industry, from Divergent, to Harry Potter, to The Hunger Games. YA publishing has reached heights never before imagined, and yet more young, hungry readers appear each day seeking new stories, fantastic worlds, and incredible characters. Undoubtedly, Norton would be pleased.