EMPEROR NORTON :: Further Learning
To learn more about Emperor Norton...
BOOKS
The following three titles all are long out of print and can be rather expensive on the collector's market — but they are readily available from good lending libraries in California and elsewhere.
William Drury's book, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead, 1986), is recognized as the standard biography of Emperor Norton, and is the starting point for many contemporary articles about the Emperor. A digital copy of the book is available via the Internet Archive.
For nearly 50 years prior to the publication of Drury's biography, the standard book-length treatment was Allen Stanley Lane's Emperor Norton: The Mad Monarch of America (The Caxton Printers, 1939), which remains a useful if somewhat romanticized account. (See our articles on Lane here and here.)
Rabbi William M. Kramer's scholarly little book, Emperor Norton of San Francisco (Norton B. Stern, 1974) — subtitled "A look at the life and death and strange burials of the most famous eccentric of gold rush California” — is a fascinating exploration of the Emperor's Jewishness and of the Jewish community's ambivalence about that.
ARTICLES & ESSAYS
In addition to our own biographical essay and more than 180 articles of original research…
We commend Joel GAzis-SAx’s 3-part essay, "The Madness of Joshua Norton" (1997) as one of the more thoughtful meditations on the life and legacy of the Emperor.
LIST OF PROCLAMATIONS
At The Libertarian Labyrinth, independent scholar Shawn P. Wilbur’s Emperor Norton Project is a “work in progress” effort to document as many as possible of the Emperor’s published Proclamations. There are some omissions. And, it appears that some of the attributed decrees that Wilbur includes may be forgeries. But, this is by far the most comprehensive and reliable list of Proclamations online right now.
The Emperor Norton Trust’s articles on specific Proclamations (and groups of Proclamations) is here.
PODCASTS
Dana Schwartz offers her take on Emperor Norton in this March 2021 episode of Noble Blood.
In December 2020, Shane Waters released this Hometown History episode about the Emperor.
Ben Carr, who teaches history at Southern New Hampshire University, is interviewed about Emperor Norton in this Working Historians episode from June 2020.
Many have been introduced to the Emperor via this 2005 episode by Sparkletack, a.k.a. Richard Miller.
LISTS OF RESOURCES
There are a number of web pages that feature variously wide-ranging lists of historical and artistic works and projects about, or related to, Emperor Norton. Some of these pages were created years ago; long since have been orphaned; and are peppered with the broken links that often attend such online relics.
The following lists are more actively maintained and curated, and are good springboards for diving into the pool of resources that are available:
Emperor Norton page at the Spirit of America Bookstore — includes information and purchase links
“Emperor Norton in popular culture” entry on Wikipedia
DOCUMENTARY FILM TREATMENTS
There also are some wonderful short documentaries* about the Emperor, including this 1998 film by Brett Schwartz:
This 2010 film by Isaac Wolfe:
This 2004 film by Nick Crummey, Nina Hirten, Anna Kocherovsky and Zach Shiner:
And this 2021 video by an Irish YouTuber who creates and publishes videos under the name Qxir:
* These four documentaries are recommended here, in part, because the filmmakers all are extremely careful stewards of the histories they address. There are, however, a couple of factual misses. In the second film above, for example, one interviewee claims that Emperor Norton set out the visions for both the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge; this is not the case. The third film concludes by saying that "a movement...to name the Western span of the Bay Bridge after His Majesty....passed the San Francisco legislature and is now moved on to Sacramento for the final decision." In fact, the resolution adopted in late 2004 by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors called for only the new Eastern section of the bridge to be named for the Emperor. This suggestion was not embraced by the Oakland City Council, and the idea went no further. And, the fourth film has Joshua Norton leaving South Africa in 1849 and arriving in San Francisco with a "fortune" that he "brought with him" from S.A. In fact, Joshua left S.A. in 1845. And: Any “nest egg” that Joshua brought to San Francisco, he probably made after he arrived in the Americas.
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