John Robert Moore was an American biographer and bibliographer of Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...

.

Life

He was the son of an Episcopalian minister, and was born in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. After a degree at the University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

, he took a Ph.D. at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 with a dissertation on ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s. He was appointed associate professor at the University of Indiana in 1922.

Work on Defoe

In 1930 he became convinced that A General History of the Pyrates

A General History of the Pyrates

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates is a 1724 book published in Britain, containing biographies of contemporary pirates. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, it is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates...

was written by Defoe, and announced this finding in 1932. He went on to attribute also Robert Drury's Journal to Defoe alone (going much further than previous bibliographers William Lee

William Lee (civil engineer)

William Lee was an English civil and sanitary engineer. He is now best known in his role as biographer and bibliographer of Daniel Defoe.-Life:He was born in Sheffield, and became Surveyor of Highways...

 who had rejected the idea, Samuel Pasfield Oliver

Samuel Pasfield Oliver

Samuel Pasfield Oliver was an English artillery officer, geographer and antiquary.-Life:Born at Bovinger, Essex, on 30 October 1838, he was the eldest and only surviving son of William Macjanley Oliver, rector of Bovinger, by his wife Jane Weldon...

, and William Peterfield Trent

William Peterfield Trent

William Peterfield Trent, LL.D., D.C.L. was a professor of English literature at Columbia University, an American editor, and a historian.-Biography:...

). This attribution turned out to be highly controversial. It was criticised by Arthur W. Secord in a 1945 paper. In later attacking Moore's work on the Defoe canon as a whole, Rodney Baine picked out the attribution of Robert Drury's Journal as an egregious example.

Works

His works include:

• Defoe in the Pillory; 1939.
• Daniel Defoe: Citizen of the Modern World; 1958, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-608-09024-7.

Further reading

• John Robert Moore: a bibliography (1961), Indiana University.
• P. N. Furbank
  P. N. Furbank
  Philip Nicholas Furbank FRSL is an English writer, scholar and critic, and a professor of the Open University.-Works:...
  
  and W. R. Owens (1994). Defoe De-Attributions: A Critique of J. R. Moore's Checklist. London: Hambledon Press. ISBN 1-85285-128-7 Google Books.