Emperor Norton - Posthumous Fame

Posthumous Fame

Although details of his life story may have been forgotten, Emperor Norton was immortalized in literature. Mark Twain, who resided in San Francisco during part of Emperor Norton's "reign", modeled the character of the King in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on Joshua Norton.

Robert Louis Stevenson made Norton a character in his 1892 novel, The Wrecker. Stevenson's stepdaughter, Isobel Field, mentioned Norton in her autobiography, This Life I've Loved. She said that Norton "was a gentle and kindly man, and fortunately found himself in the friendliest and most sentimental city in the world, the idea being 'let him be emperor if he wants to.' San Francisco played the game with him."

Over the years, Norton's eccentricity has been a continuing source of inspiration. He appears as a patron saint in the religion of Discordianism, and makes numerous appearances in popular culture.

In 1939, E Clampus Vitus placed a plaque on the Transbay Terminal of the San Francisco Bay Bridge commemorating Emperor Norton's "The bridge will be built" proclamation.

In January 1980, ceremonies were conducted in San Francisco to honor the 100th anniversary of the demise of the one and only "Emperor of the United States." Norton's proclamations promoting a bridge between San Francisco and Oakland were commemorated on December 14, 2004, when after a campaign by local cartoonist Phil Frank, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to name the new span of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge after Norton. The proposal needed approval by the City of Oakland and state authorities before it could be ratified. However, Oakland City Council expressed disapproval, and the resolution went no further.

Emperor Norton was also included in an issue of Sandman comics in issue #31 entitled Three Septembers and a January. In the story, Dream, Despair, Delirium and Desire fight over who can take him into their realm before Death can take him. Dream gave him the idea of being emperor, which prevented Desire, Despair and Delirium from taking him. In the end, in his death, Death implies that Norton is one of the 36 Tzaddikkim of the Jewish stories, and remarked that among all the emperors, kings and heads of states she has met, he is her favorite.

Singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet, in his 2012 musical homage to his home city San Francisco Temple Beautiful, sings of him in Emperor Norton In The Last Year of His Life (1880).