C. L. Moore (1911– 1987) is one of the most influential female fantasy authors of all time. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Moore published her first story, “Shambleau,” in Weird Tales in 1933, where it was an immediate success and earned praise from contemporaries such as H. P. Lovecraft. She proceeded to write high- profile stories for Weird Tales and Astounding Science Fiction for the next decade, earning particular acclaim for her characters Jirel of Joiry, the first strong female protagonist in the sword- and- sorcery genre, and daring spaceman Northwest Smith. Moore met science fiction author Henry Kuttner in 1936 when he wrote her a fan letter, mistakenly believing her to be a man, and the two married in 1940. Together the couple collaborated on numerous stories, novels, and scripts under their own names and seventeen pseudonyms until Kuttner’s death in 1958. Moore stopped writing fiction but continued to work in television scriptwriting until her second marriage to Thomas Reggie in 1963, when she ceased writing altogether. In 1981 she received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Gandalf Grand Master Award. She died in 1987 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, and in 1998 was posthumously inducted in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
