Colma Research Expedition, Part 2
Shaenon: At long last, we found Emperor Norton’s grave! Previous visitors had left flowers and tribute, including…a hat. And some coins. And a can of tuna?
We left fifty cents, the traditional tax levied by the Emperor whenever he needed lunch money.
I’m glad I visited, because otherwise I wouldn’t have learned that buried directly in front of Emperor Norton is Empress Norton.
Jose Sarria, a.k.a. Empress Norton, was a longtime San Francisco activist and founder of the Imperial Council of San Francisco, a charity organization founded in honor of Joseph Norton and composed largely of drag queens. Many other members of the Imperial Court are buried near Emperor Norton, or have spaces reserved.
If this doesn’t make you love the Bay Area, I have no hope for you. Sorry you missed the excitement, Jeff.
Channing: As am I. This sounds like it was a rocktacular research visit. Can you believe I didn’t even know about this guy before writing “Skin Horse”? Truly, one of the great Americans.
José Sarria is a hero to queer people everywhere. Among his other accomplishments, he was the first openly gay man to run for public office in the US, in 1961. That man had brass ones under his skirt!
Emperor Norton will always be a hero to dreamers everywhere.
He is also one of the saints of the Discordian religion 🙂
I understand a lot of Steampunks also respect and adore him as well…
It doesn’t have much on the Emperor per se, but the Illuminatus Trilogy (by Robert Anton Wilson) and its ‘source book’ Principia Discordia touches on his reign. Plenty of secret society and conspiracy to follow too. Plus plenty of crazy.
Its been at least ten years, maybe fifteen – time to re-read.
That means you didn’t read Sandman – bad Jeff!
I have to mention Christopher Moore here. He is a satirist who has written a number of stories taking place in and around San Francisco area, and the Emperor Norton is a recurring character in several of them. Always portrayed in a respectful light, of course
It speaks well of you all that you respect such a good and loving man – and his court also.
It says a lot about how we treat history that almost no one knows about either Emperor Norton or King James. (Or, for that matter, that Mormons went anywhere other than Utah after they left Nauvoo [or even that they weren’t all in Nauvoo].)
And of course, someone will now expose my ignorance by listing some other American royalty. (Royalty that we took over, like Hawaii, doesn’t count. Everyone knows about that. And I’m not going to count captured royalty that was brought to this country in slave ships either. Has to be American citizens living here that declared themselves to be royalty over some or all of America. And had support.)
Wow, I think that’s a Panama-Pacific coin, famously minted in San Francisco in honor of the creation of the canal for which is was named, with a face value of $50. Looks like a numismatist *really* wanted to honor Norton.