MOORE, C(atherine) L(ucille)

Born 24 January 1911, Indianapolis, Indiana; died April 1987

Also wrote under: Paul Edmonds, Keith Hammond, Hudson Hastings, Kalvin Kent, Henry Kuttner, C. H. Liddell, Lawrence O'Donnell, Lewis Padgett, Woodrow Wilson Smith, and others

Daughter of Otto N. and Maude Ones Moore; married Henry Kuttner, 1940 (died 1958); Thomas Reggie, 1963

C. L. Moore attended Indiana University for a year and a half but was forced by the Depression to take a job in an Indianapolis bank. She produced her first published works in her spare time. In 1938, Moore met science fiction and fantasy writer Henry Kuttner; from 1940, when she and Kuttner married, until his death in 1958, they collaborated, in varying degrees, on almost everything they wrote.

Moore earned B.A. (1956) and M.A. (1963) degrees in English from the University of Southern California; after Kuttner's death, for four years she taught his writing course at USC. She completed a screenplay for Rappacini's Daughter which they had been writing and later wrote scripts for television. Moore lived in Los Angeles with her second husband. Although Moore had published no new science fiction or fantasy in some 20 years, at a 1976 convention she did announce her intentions to return to this field. She was true to her word and released varied titles, including The Startling Worlds of Henry Knutter (1987), which she edited in memory of her first husband.

"Shambleau" (1933), Moore's first published short story, innovatively emphasizes characterization, imagery, and human sexuality in its depiction of an Earth adventurer, Northwest Smith, and his encounter with a Medusa-like alien. Smith, a conventional hero whose illegal exploits are never immoral, figures in a series of stories which subsequently appeared in Weird Tales : these include "Black Thirst" (1934), "Scarlet Dream" (1934), and "Dust of Gods" (1934).

In 1934, Moore began a parallel series of stories, featuring Jirel of Joiry, an independent warrior queen of the 15th century. In "Black God's Kiss" (1934), Jirel braves the horrors of a super-natural, evil-ridden dimension to find a weapon to overthrow her castle's conquerer. In subsequent stories ("Black God's Shadow," 1934; "Julhi," 1935; " Jirel Meets Magic," 1935; "The Cold Gray God," 1935; and "The Dark Land," 1936) Jirel continues to triumphantly battle the supernatural. "Quest of the Star Stone" (1937), on which Moore and Kuttner collaborated through correspondence, was of special interest to fans of both series; in it, Northwest Smith is magically transported back to the 15th century to confront Jirel.

It is difficult to determine which stories written after Moore's marriage are exclusively or predominantly hers and which Kuttner's because both writers, singly and in collaboration, used a total of seventeen pseudonyms. One story, however, written under her own name, is clearly Moore's work. "No Woman Born" (1944), the tale of a dancer caught in a theater fire whose severe burns force her rescuers to transfer her brain into a metal body, highlights Moore's glowing imagery and subtle questions about the nature of humanity. It is one of the first science fiction treatments of cyborgs (creatures part human and part machine) to emphasize characterization rather than technology.

Two of Moore and Kuttner's collaborations have been included in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. "Mimsy Were the Borogroves" (1943), written under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett, plays with conventional notions of childhood and maturity. Two Earth children transport themselves into a future dimension by deciphering the puzzles and games lost by a time traveling future scientist. "Vintage Season" (1946), published under the name of Lawrence O'Donnell, is a novella about time travelers from the future whose vacations are spent witnessing crucial events in Earth's history. Its action centers upon the characters and personalities of these voyeurs and the reactions of their landlord, a contemporary young man who gradually realizes their origin and motivations. Although these dilettantes might avert disaster in his time, they choose not to.

In addition to their numerous short stories, Moore and Kuttner collaborated on a notable novel, Fury (1947), set on Venus and describing the aftermath of a failed utopia. The science fiction and the four mystery novels they wrote between 1948 and 1958 are not of the same caliber as their earlier creations. Moore's lasting contributions to the fields of science fiction and fantasy include not only her own works but also the models she and Kuttner set for contemporary and future writers. Depth of characterization and setting, attention to the nuances of human motivation and interaction, recognition of the myths shaping human experience, and incorporation of sophisticated mainstream literary techniques (such as the use of a central intelligence in "No Woman Born") are the innovations one may credit to Moore Feminist critics have recently begun to praise Moore for her strong heroine, Jirel of Joiry, at the same time they "excuse" or ignore her other works, but such criticism does not recognize the full significance of her oeuvre.

Other Works:

The Day He Died (1947). The Brass Ring (with H. Knutter, 1947, reissued in 1964, and as Murder in Brass, 1947). A Knome There Was, and Other Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1950). Tomorrow and Tomorrow; and The Fairy Chessman (with Knutter, 1951, later versions, 1956, 1963). Judgment Night (1952). Robots Have No Tails (1952, as The Proud Robot: The Complete Galloway Gallegher Stories 1983). Shambleau, and Others (1953). Mutant (1953). Northwest of Earth (1954). Line to Tomorrow (1954). There Shall Be Darkness (1954). Beyond Earth's Gates (1954). No Boundaries (with Knutter, 1955). Doomsday Morning (1957). Earth's Last Citadel (with Knutter, 1964). Valley of the Flame (with Knutter, 1964). The Time Axis (with Knutter, 1965). The Dark World (with Knutter, 1965). Well of the Worlds (with Knutter, 1965). Jirel of Joiry (1969, as Black God's Shadow 1977). The Mask of Circe (with Knutter, 1971). The Best of C. L. Moore (edited by L. del Ray, 1975). Clash By Night and Other Stories (with Knutter, 1980). Scarlet Dream (1981, as Northwest Smith 1982). Vintage Season (bound with In Another Country by R. Silverberg, 1990).

Bibliography:

Clareson, T., ed., Voices for the Future: Essays on Major Science Fiction Writers (1976). del Ray, L., in The Best of C. L. Moore (1975). Knight, D., In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction (1956). Moskowitz, S., Seekers of Tomorrow (1966). Rosinsky, N. Moore, in Selected Proceedings of the 1978 Science Fiction Research Association National Conference (1979). Sargent, P., "Women and Science Fiction," in Women of Wonder (1974).

Reference works:

Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections (1978). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995). St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers (1996).

—NATALIE M. ROSINSKY