Joseph Ward Moore (August 10, 1903 – January 29, 1978) was an American
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
writer. According to ''
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared ...
'', "he contributed only infrequently to the field,
uteach of his books became something of a classic."
[
]
Writer
Moore began publishing with the novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
''Breathe the Air Again'' (1942), about the onset of the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, and Ward Moore himself appears briefly as a character in the novel.
His most famous work is the alternate history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...
novel '' Bring the Jubilee'' (1953). This novel, narrated by Hodge Backmaker, tells of a world in which the South won the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, leaving the North in ruins.
Moore's other novels include ''Cloud By Day'', in which a brush fire threatens a town in Topanga Canyon
Topanga () (Tongva: ''Topaa'nga'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow s ...
;
''Greener Than You Think'', a novel about unstoppable Bermuda grass;
''Joyleg'' (co-authored with Avram Davidson), which assumes the survival of the State of Franklin
The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland)Landrum, refers to the proposed state as "the proposed republic of Franklin; while Wheeler has it as ''Frankland''." In ''That's Not in My American History Boo ...
; and
''Caduceus Wild'' (co-authored with Robert Bradford), about a medarchy, a nation governed by physicians.
Moore is also known for the two short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
(since collected) "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) which are postapocalyptic tales with parallels to the Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
. His short story "Adjustment", in which an ordinary man adjusts to a never-never land in which his wishes are fulfilled and makes the environment adjust to him as well, has been reprinted several times.
Biography
Moore was born in Madison, New Jersey, a western suburb of New York City. His parents were Jewish and had married in 1902, the previous year. His grandfather Joseph Solomon Moore (1821–1892) had been a successful German-born commission merchant and the statistician of the New York custom house, the author of several books on the tariff question and a friend of Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He immigrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new ...
. Five months after Ward Moore's birth, he moved with his parents to Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, where his mother's family lived. In 1913 they returned to New York.
Moore's parents divorced and remarried around this time, and his father died in 1916. His mother's second husband and Moore's stepfather was the noted German jazz band leader . Moore attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York, where according to one widely repeated story he was expelled for antiwar activity during World War I; elsewhere he claimed that he dropped out of school in order to write. He later attended Columbia College.
Moore claimed to have spent several years tramping around the United States as a hobo during the early 1920s. In the mid-1920s he managed a bookshop in Chicago, where he befriended one of the store's patrons, the young poet Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider ...
. Moore appears in Rexroth's memoir ''An Autobiographical Novel'' as the mad bohemian poet/bookseller/science fiction writer "Bard Major". Rexroth claimed that "Major" had been on the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Milwaukee and was expelled for Trotskyist deviationism, but the factual basis for this tale, if any, is obscure.
In 1929 Moore relocated to California, where he was to live for the rest of his life. Starting in 1937 he participated in the Federal Writers Project of the WPA, where his friend Rexroth was an administrator in the San Francisco office. His picaresque first novel ''Breathe the Air Again,'' was about the labor struggle in California during the 1920s. It had autobiographical elements and was widely and favorably reviewed. It was intended to be the first of a trilogy but the remaining volumes were never published.
In the 1940 census Moore is listed as living on Clifford Street in Los Angeles with his first wife Violka. His occupation is listed as writer-novelist in the magazine publishing industry.
During the 1940s Moore wrote book reviews, articles and short stories for a number of magazines and newspapers, including ''Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the ...
'', the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'', ''Jewish Horizons'', and ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
''. On May 3, 1943 in Los Angeles Moore was married to his second wife, Lorna Lenzi. He had seven children. Starting in 1950 he was book review editor of ''Frontier'', a West Coast political monthly similar in outlook to ''The Nation''.
In the early 1950s he began writing regularly for '' The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction''. He was a friend of the magazine's California-based editors, Anthony Boucher
William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...
and J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas (June 9, 1911 – April 19, 1978) was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe.
He entered publishing in 1941 as a sal ...
, and soon became a popular favorite with the magazine's readers. Though he was never terribly prolific, his science fiction stories penned during the 1950s were entertaining and well crafted and were well received.
In the 1960s his literary output diminished, and his last two novels were completed with the help of collaborators. His 1953 speculative if-the-South-had-won-the-Civil-War novel ''Bring the Jubilee'' was brought back into print at the time of the Civil War centennial and found an appreciative new audience among Civil War buffs.
He published little during the 1960s, but published several stories in the mid-1970s.
After separating in June 1963, Moore and Lorna Lenzi were divorced on May 18, 1967.[Commonwealth of Virginia-Report of Divorce or Annulment, State File Number 67-003414.] Moore's third wife was the science fiction writer Raylyn Moore (née Crabbe; 1928–2005). The couple moved to Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,090. Pacific Grove is located between Point Pinos and Monterey.
Pacific Grove has numerous Victorian-era houses, ...
where he died in 1978.
Partial Bibliography
*''Breathe the Air Again'' (1942) non-genre
*''Greener Than You Think'' (1947)
*'' Bring the Jubilee'' (1953)
*''Lot'' (1953), short story
*''Lot's Daughter'' (1954), short story
*''Adjustment'', (1957) short story
*''Cloud By Day'' (1956) non-genre
*''Joyleg'' (1962) (w/Avram Davidson)
*''Caduceus Wild'' (1978) (w/Robert Bradford)
References
External links
Biography
at SciFi.com
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* (under "Moore, Ward, 1903–", previous page of browse report)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Ward
1903 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American alternate history writers
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
Novelists from New Jersey
Writers from Chicago
People from Madison, New Jersey
Writers from New York City
People from Pacific Grove, California
DeWitt Clinton High School alumni
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from California
Novelists from New York (state)
Novelists from Illinois