(Jan. 24, 1911-Apr. 4, 1987). With her first published story, Catherine Lucille Moore became an influential author in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. She was born and raised in Indianapolis, then, after graduating from , she enrolled at Indiana University. There, three of her short stories were featured in a student publication, but Moore dropped out due to the Great Depression. She returned to Indianapolis to take a job at the in 1932, where she was a stenographer and later a private secretary.
While working at the bank, Moore submitted her first short story to a major genre magazine, . In 1933, “Shambleau,” published under the byline C. L. Moore, catapulted her to science fiction fame. With its literary quality “Shambleau” sparked a revolution in science fiction that emphasized sophisticated cerebral explorations and emotional depth.
Moore moved out of Indiana when she married fellow writer Henry Kuttner in 1940. Thereafter, most of the couple’s publications were coauthored and printed under numerous pen names. Until Kuttner’s death in 1958, the couple produced a flood of stories for the genre magazines, which would later be studied by the following generation of science fiction authors.
Jirel of Joiry was one of Moore’s groundbreaking creations. “Black God’s Kiss,” in which the character first debuted in in 1934, was the first sword and sorcery fantasy story to feature a woman as the hero. Fellow authors from the period characterized Moore’s legacy as raising science fiction to a credible literary field. In 1981, Moore was honored with the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1998. Moore left her mark on Golden Age science fiction, forever changing the field for women who came after her.
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