C. L. Moore

C. L. Moore
Moore
Born	Catherine Lucille Moore (1911-01-24)January 24, 1911 Indianapolis,Indiana,US
Died	April 4, 1987(1987-04-04)(aged 76) Hollywood, California,US
Pen name	Lawrence O'Donnell C. H. Liddell Lewis Padgett
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Period	1933–1963
Genre	Science fiction,fantasy
Spouse	Henry Kuttner(1940–1958, his death) Thomas Reggie (1963–1987, her death)

Catherine Lucille Moore(January 24, 1911 – April 4, 1987) was anAmericanscience fictionandfantasywriter, who first came to prominence in the 1930s writing asC. L. Moore.She was among the first women to write in the science fiction and fantasy genres (though earlier woman writers in these genres includeClare Winger Harris,Greye La Spina,andFrancis Stevens,among others). Moore's work paved the way for many otherfemale speculative fictionwriters.

Moore married her first husbandHenry Kuttnerin 1940, and most of her work from 1940 to 1958 (Kuttner's death) was written by the couple collaboratively. They were prolific co-authors under their own names, although more often under any one of severalpseudonyms.

As "Catherine Kuttner", she had a brief career as atelevision scriptwriterfrom 1958 to 1962. She retired from writing in 1963.

Early life

Moore was born on January 24, 1911, inIndianapolis, Indiana.She was chronically ill as a child and spent much of her time reading literature of the fantastic. She left college during theGreat Depressionto work as a secretary at theFletcher Trust Companyin Indianapolis.

Early career

The Vagabond,a student-run magazine atIndiana University,published three of her stories when she was a student there. The three short stories, all with a fantasy theme and all credited to "Catherine Moore", appeared in 1930–31.Her first professional sales appeared inpulp magazinesbeginning in 1933. Her decision to publish under the name "C. L. Moore" stemmed not from a desire to hide her gender, but to keep her employers at Fletcher Trust from knowing that she was working as a writer on the side.

Her early work included two significant series inWeird Tales,then edited byFarnsworth Wright.One features the rogue and adventurerNorthwest Smithwandering through theSolar System;the other features the swordswoman/warriorJirel of Joiry,one of the first female protagonists insword-and-sorceryfiction. Both series are sometimes named for their lead characters.One of the Northwest Smith stories, "Nymph of Darkness" (Fantasy Magazine(April 1935); expurgated version,Weird Tales(Dec 1939)) was written in collaboration withForrest J Ackerman.

The most famous Northwest Smith story is "Shambleau",which was also Moore's first professional sale. It originally appeared in the November 1933 issue ofWeird Tales,netting her $100, and later becoming a popular anthology reprint.

Cover ofWeird Tales,October 1934, featuring "The Black God's Kiss" by Moore (painting byMargaret Brundage)

Her most famous Jirel story is also the first one, "Black God's Kiss", which was the cover story in the October 1934 issue ofWeird Tales,subtitled "the weirdest story ever told" (see figure).Moore's early stories were notable for their emphasis on the senses and emotions, which was unusual ingenre fictionat the time.

Moore's work also appeared inAstounding Science Fictionmagazine throughout the 1940s. Several stories written for that magazine were later collected in her first published book,Judgment Night(1952)One of them, the novella "No Woman Born"(1944), was to be included in more than 10 different science fiction anthologies includingThe Best of C. L. Moore.

Included in that collection were "Judgment Night" (first published in August and September 1943), the lush rendering of a futuregalactic empirewith a sober meditation on the nature of power and its inevitable loss; "The Code" (July 1945), an homage to the classicFaustwith modern theories andLovecraftiandread; "Promised Land" (February 1950) and "Heir Apparent" (July 1950), both documenting the grim twisting that mankind must undergo in order to spread into the Solar System; and "Paradise Street" (September 1950), a futuristic take on theOld Westconflict between lone hunter and wilderness-taming settlers.

Marriage to Henry Kuttner and literary collaborations

Moore metHenry Kuttner,also a science fiction writer, in 1936 when he wrote her a fan letter under the impression that "C. L. Moore" was a man. They soon collaborated on a story that combined Moore's signature characters, Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry: "Quest of the Starstone" (1937).

Moore and Kuttner married in 1940 and thereafter wrote many of their stories in collaboration, sometimes under their own names, but more often using the joint pseudonyms C. H. Liddell, Lawrence O'Donnell, or Lewis Padgett —most commonly the latter,a combination of their mothers' maiden names. Moore still occasionally wrote solo work during this period, including the frequently anthologized "No Woman Born" (1944). A selection of Moore's solo short fiction work from 1942 through 1950 was collected in 1952'sJudgement Night.Moore's only solo novel,Doomsday Morning,appeared in 1957.

The vast majority of Moore's work in the period, though, was written as part of a very prolific partnership. Working together, the couple managed to combine Moore's style with Kuttner's more cerebral storytelling. They continued to work in science fiction and fantasy, and their works include two frequently anthologized sci-fi classics: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"(February 1943), the basis for the filmThe Last Mimzy(2007), andVintage Season(September 1946), the basis for the filmTimescape(1992). As "Lewis Padgett" they also penned two mystery novels:The Brass Ring(1946) andThe Day He Died(1947).

Later career

After Kuttner's death in 1958, Moore continued teaching her writing course at theUniversity of Southern California,but permanently retired from writing any further literary fiction. Instead, working as "Catherine Kuttner", she carved out a short-lived career as a scriptwriter forWarner Bros.television, writing episodes of the westernsSugarfoot,Maverick,andThe Alaskans,as well as the detective series77 Sunset Strip,all between 1958 and 1962. However, upon marrying Thomas Reggie (who was not a writer) in 1963, she ceased writing entirely.

Moore was the author guest of honor atKansas City, Missouri's fantasy and science fiction conventionBYOB-Con 6,held over the U.S.Memorial Dayweekend in May 1976. She was a pro guest of honor atDenvention II(the 39th World Science Fiction Convention) in 1981.

In a 1979 interview, she said that she and a writer friend were collaborating on a fantasy story, and how it could possibly form the basis of a new series. But nothing was ever published.

In 1981, Moore received two annual awards for her career in fantasy literature: theWorld Fantasy Award for Life Achievement,chosen by a panel of judges at theWorld Fantasy Convention,and theGandalf Grand Master Award,chosen by vote of participants in theWorld Science Fiction Convention.(Thus she became the eighth and final Grand Master of Fantasy, sponsored by theSwordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America,in partial analogy to the Grand Master of Science Fiction sponsored by theScience Fiction Writers of America.)

Moore was an active member of the Tom and Terri Pinckard Science Fiction literarysalonand a frequent contributor to literary discussions with the regular membership, includingRobert Bloch,George Clayton Johnson,Larry Niven,Jerry Pournelle,Norman Spinrad,A. E. van Vogt,and others, as well as many visiting writers and speakers.

Later life

Moore developedAlzheimer's disease,but that was not obvious for several years. She had ceased to attend the meetings when she was nominated to be the first womanGrand Masterof theScience Fiction Writers of America;the nomination was withdrawn at the request of her husband, Thomas Reggie, who said the award and ceremony would be at best confusing and likely upsetting to her, given the progress of her disease.She died on April 4, 1987, at her home inHollywood, California.

Awards

• 1978: Fritz Leiber Award
• 1981:Gandalf Grand Master Award,World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1998: Posthumous induction into theScience Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
• 2004:Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award
• 2019: RetroHugo Awardfor best Novelette for the year 1944

Selected works

Earth's Last Citadelwas reprinted in the July 1950 edition ofFantastic Novels.

• Earth's Last Citadel(withHenry Kuttner;1943)
• The Dark World(credited to Henry Kuttner, but believed by many critics to be a collaboration, 1946)
• Vintage Season(novella written withHenry Kuttner,as "Lawrence O'Donnell";1946). It was filmed in 1992 asTimescape.
• The Mask of Circe(withHenry Kuttner;1948, Illustrated byAlicia Austin;1971)
• Beyond Earth's Gates(1949)
• Judgment Night(stories, 1952)
• Shambleau and Others(stories, 1953)
• Northwest of Earth(stories, 1954)
• No Boundaries(withHenry Kuttner;stories, 1955)
• Doomsday Morning(1957)
• Jirel of Joiry(Paperback Library,1969);Black God's Shadow(Donald M. Grant,1977)—the five Jirel stories collected; the latter a limited edition with color plates, signed, numbered, and boxed
• The Best of C. L. Moore,edited byLester Del Rey(Nelson Doubleday,1975)—includes a biographical introduction byLester Del Rey,which is carefully noncommittal about the influence of her personal life on her writing, and an autobiographical afterword by Moore
• Black God's Kiss(Paizo Publishing,2007;ISBN978-1-60125-045-2)—the fiveJirelstories collected
• Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith(Paizo Publishing,2008;ISBN978-1-60125-081-0)—the thirteenNorthwest Smithstories collected

Further reading

• Bleiler, Everett F. "Fantasy, Horror...and Sex: The Early Stories of C. L. Moore".The Scream Factory(Spring 1994): 41–47.

External links

• Works by C. L. MooreatProject Gutenberg
• C. L. MooreatIMDb
• Works by or about C. L. Mooreat theInternet Archive
• Works by C. L. MooreatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• "C. L. Moore biography".Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
• MooreandLewis Padgettat Fantastic Fiction
• C. L. Mooreat theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• C. L. MooreatIMDb
• Rosemarie Arbur: Literary Descendants of C. L. Moore
• Past Masters - A Kuttner Above the Rest (But Wait! There's Moore!)by Bud Webster, at Galactic Central
• Shambleauread by the author, C. L. Moore
• C. L. MooreatLibrary of Congress,with 12 library catalog records
• Lewis Padgettat LC Authorities, with eight records, andat WorldCat