Catherine Lucile Moore

Catherine Lucille Moore (January 24, 1911 – April 4, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, who first came to prominence in the 1930s writing as C. L. Moore. She was among the first women to write in the science fiction and fantasy genres (though earlier woman writers in these genres include Clare Winger Harris, Greye La Spina, and Francis Stevens, among others). Moore's work paved the way for many other female speculative fiction writers.

Moore married her first husband Henry Kuttner in 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 several pseudonyms.

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

Early life Moore was born on January 24, 1911, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Maude Estelle Moore, whose father Levi N. Jones had been a Methodist minister, and Otto Newman Moore. Otto "operated a large shop designing and manufacturing tools and machinery"; his own father was the doctor Henry Moore. C. L. Moore was chronically ill as a child and spent much of her time reading literature of the fantastic. The young Moore's favourite reading material included Alice in Wonderland, the Oz books, and the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. She gained work as a secretary at the Fletcher Trust Company in Indianapolis. However, he died by a gunshot wound on 13 February 1936. Moore herself, and the newspapers, reported the death as accidental, but according to the pulp fiction scholar Bobby Derie, "the death certificate lists it as a suicide". In 1930–31, The Vagabond, a student-run magazine at Indiana University, published three of her stories as Catherine Moore, all in the vein of fantasy: "Happily Ever After", "Semira", and "Two Fantasies". Her first professional sales appeared in pulp magazines beginning in 1933.

Her early work included two significant series in Weird Tales, then edited by Farnsworth Wright. One features the rogue and adventurer Northwest Smith wandering through the Solar System; the other features the swordswoman/warrior Jirel of Joiry, one of the first female protagonists in sword-and-sorcery fiction. Both series are sometimes named for their lead characters.

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

Included in that collection were "Judgment Night" (first published in August and September 1943), the lush rendering of a future galactic empire with a sober meditation on the nature of power and its inevitable loss; "The Code" (July 1945), an homage to the classic Faust with modern theories and Lovecraftian dread; "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 the Old West conflict between lone hunter and wilderness-taming settlers.

Marriage to Henry Kuttner and literary collaborations Moore met Henry 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.

In 1981, Moore received two annual awards for her career in fantasy literature: the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, chosen by a panel of judges at the World Fantasy Convention, and the Gandalf Grand Master Award, chosen by vote of participants in the World Science Fiction Convention. She died on April 4, 1987, at her home in Hollywood, California.

Influence Moore's work was cited as an influence by several later female writers of science fiction and fantasy, including Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Suzy McKee Charnas, C. J. Cherryh and Molly Tanzer. Moore's fiction was also an inspiration to male writers such as Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, and Michael Moorcock. 1998: Posthumous induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame 2019: Retro Hugo Award for best Novelette for the year 1944

Selected works Earth's Last Citadel was reprinted in the July 1950 edition of Fantastic Novels. Scarlet Dream (short story, 1934) "There Shall be Darkness" (short story, 1942) Earth's Last Citadel (with Henry Kuttner; 1943) The Dark World (credited to Henry Kuttner, but believed by many critics to be a collaboration, 1946) Vintage Season (novella written with Henry Kuttner, as "Lawrence O'Donnell"; 1946). It was filmed in 1992 as Timescape. The Mask of Circe (with Henry Kuttner; 1948, Illustrated by Alicia Austin; 1971) Beyond Earth's Gates (1949) Judgment Night (stories, 1952) Shambleau and Others (stories, 1953) Northwest of Earth (stories, 1954) No Boundaries (with Henry 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 by Lester Del Rey (Nelson Doubleday, 1975)—includes a biographical introduction by Lester 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; )—the five Jirel stories collected Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith (Paizo Publishing, 2008; )—the thirteen Northwest Smith stories collected

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