Ward Moore
Encyclopedia
Ward Moore was the working name of American author Joseph Ward Moore. Moore grew up in New York City
, and later moved to Chicago, and then to California
.
Moore began publishing with the novel
, Breathe the Air Again (1942), about the onset of the Great Depression
. 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
novel Bring the Jubilee
(1953). This novel, narrated by Hodge Backmaker, tells of a world in which the South
won the American Civil War
, leaving the North
in ruins.
Moore's other novels include Cloud By Day, in which a brush fire threatens a town in Topanga Canyon;
Greener Than You Think, a novel about unstoppable Bermuda Grass;
Joyleg (co-authored with Avram Davidson
),
about the purported survival of the State of Franklin
;
Caduceus Wild (co-authored with Robert Bradford), about a medarchy, a nation governed by physicians.
Moore is also known for the two short stories
(since collected) "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) which are postapocalyptic tales with parallels to the Bible
. The film Panic in Year Zero!
(1962) was (without giving credit) based on Lot
and Lot's Daughter. 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.
; his parents were Jewish and were married in 1902. Moore's grandfather Joseph Solomon Moore (1821–1892) was a successful German-born commission merchant and the statistician of the New York custom house. He wrote several books on the tariff question and was a friend of Carl Schurz
. Five months after his birth in Madison, New Jersey
, in the west suburbs of New York City, Moore moved with his parents to Montreal
, where his mother's family lived. In 1913 the family returned to New York City.
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 Julian Fuhs. Moore attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York City, 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
. 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.
By 1942 Moore was married to his first wife, Lorna Lenzi. He had seven children.
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.
During the 1940s Moore wrote book reviews, articles and short stories for a number of magazines and newspapers, including Harper's Bazaar
, the San Francisco Chronicle
, Jewish Horizons, and The Nation
. 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
and J. Francis McComas, and soon became a popular favorite with the magazine's readers. 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 "if the South had won the Civil War" fantasy 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.
In 1965 he remarried; his second wife was the science fiction writer Raylyn Moore (née Crabbe; 1928–2005). The couple moved to Pacific Grove, California
where he died in 1978.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and later moved to Chicago, and then to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Moore began publishing with the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Breathe the Air Again (1942), about the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. 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 (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
novel Bring the Jubilee
Bring the Jubilee
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a 1953 novel of alternate history. The point of divergence occurs when the Confederate States of America wins the Battle of Gettysburg and subsequently declares victory in the "War of Southron Independence" on July 4, 1864 after the surrender of the United States...
(1953). This novel, narrated by Hodge Backmaker, tells of a world in which the South
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
won the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, leaving the North
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
in ruins.
Moore's other novels include Cloud By Day, in which a brush fire threatens a town in Topanga Canyon;
Greener Than You Think, a novel about unstoppable Bermuda Grass;
Joyleg (co-authored with Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
),
about the purported survival of the State of Franklin
State of Franklin
The State of Franklin, known also as the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland , was an unrecognized autonomous United States territory created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered,...
;
Caduceus Wild (co-authored with Robert Bradford), about a medarchy, a nation governed by physicians.
Moore is also known for the two short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
(since collected) "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) which are postapocalyptic tales with parallels to the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. The film Panic in Year Zero!
Panic in Year Zero!
Panic in Year Zero! , sometimes known as End of the World, is a science fiction film directed by and starring Ray Milland. The original music score was composed by Les Baxter...
(1962) was (without giving credit) based on Lot
Lot
Lot or lots may refer to:*Lot , a unit of weight used in many European countries since Middle Ages until the beginning of the 20th century*Lot, a set of goods, together for sale in an auction; or a quantity of a financial instrument...
and Lot's Daughter. 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
Ward Moore was born in Madison, New JerseyMadison, New Jersey
Madison is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the population was 16,530. It also is known as "The Rose City".-Geography:Madison is located at ....
; his parents were Jewish and were married in 1902. Moore's grandfather Joseph Solomon Moore (1821–1892) was a successful German-born commission merchant and the statistician of the New York custom house. He wrote several books on the tariff question and was a friend of Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
. Five months after his birth in Madison, New Jersey
Madison, New Jersey
Madison is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the population was 16,530. It also is known as "The Rose City".-Geography:Madison is located at ....
, in the west suburbs of New York City, Moore moved with his parents to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, where his mother's family lived. In 1913 the family returned to New York City.
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 Julian Fuhs. Moore attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York City, 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 Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth 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...
. 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.
By 1942 Moore was married to his first wife, Lorna Lenzi. He had seven children.
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.
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
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, Jewish Horizons, and The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
. 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
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and J. Francis McComas, and soon became a popular favorite with the magazine's readers. 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 "if the South had won the Civil War" fantasy 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.
In 1965 he remarried; his second wife was the science fiction writer Raylyn Moore (née Crabbe; 1928–2005). The couple moved to Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...
where he died in 1978.