Brian Moore (novelist)

Brian Moore
Born (1921-08-25)25 August 1921
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Died 11 January 1999(1999-01-11) (aged 77)
Malibu, California, United States
Occupation Novelist, screenwriter, journalist
Language English
Nationality Canadian[1]
Notable awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1975)

Governor General's Award for English language fiction (1960 and 1975)
Spouse

Jacqueline ("Jackie") Sirois (née Scully) (m. 1952–67)

Jean Denny (m. 1967–99)
Children
  • Michael Moore

Brian Moore (first name /briːˈæn/ bree-AN;[2] 25 August 1921 – 11 January 1999), who has been described as "one of the few genuine masters of the contemporary novel",[3] was a novelist and screenwriter from Northern Ireland[4][5][6] who emigrated to Canada and later lived in the United States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland after the Second World War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal divisions of The Troubles. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times (in 1976, 1987 and 1990). Moore also wrote screenplays and several of his books were made into films.

Early life and education

Moore was born and grew up in Belfast with eight siblings[2] in a large Roman Catholic family. His grandfather, a severe, authoritarian solicitor, had been a Catholic convert.[2] His father, James Bernard Moore, was a prominent surgeon and the first Catholic to sit on the senate of Queen’s University[7] and his mother, Eileen McFadden Moore, a Donegal farmer's daughter,[2] was a nurse.[8][9] His uncle was the prominent Irish nationalist, Eoin MacNeill, founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) and Professor of Irish at University College Dublin.[10]

Moore was educated at St Malachy's College.[2][11] He left school in 1939, having failed his senior exams.

Wartime service and move to North America

Moore was a volunteer air raid warden during the bombing of Belfast by the Luftwaffe. He also served as a civilian with the British Army in North Africa, Italy and France. After the war ended he worked in Eastern Europe for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. He emigrated to Canada in 1948, worked as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette, and became a Canadian citizen. While eventually making his primary residence in California, Moore continued to live part of each year in Canada up to his death.[9]

Moore lived in Canada from 1948 to 1958,[12] moving to New York in 1959 to take up a Guggenheim Fellowship[2] and remaining there until his divorce in 1967.[2] He then moved to the west coast of the United States, settling in Malibu, California, with his new wife Jean.[2] He taught creative writing at UCLA.[13]

Novels and themes

Moore wrote his first novels in Canada.[12] His earliest novels were thrillers, published under his own name or using the pseudonyms Bernard Mara or Michael Bryan.[14] Moore's first novel outside the genre, Judith Hearne, remains among his most highly regarded. The book was rejected by ten American publishers before being accepted by a British publisher.[9] It was made into a film, with British actress Maggie Smith playing the lonely spinster who is the book/film's title character.[9]

Other novels by Moore were adapted for the screen, including Intent to Kill, The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Catholics, Black Robe, Cold Heaven, and The Statement. He co-wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, and wrote the screenplay for The Blood of Others, based on the novel Le Sang des autres by Simone de Beauvoir.

Moore criticised his Belfast schooling through his novels The Feast of Lupercal and The Emperor of Ice-Cream.[15]

Some of his novels feature staunchly anti-doctrinaire and anti-clerical themes, and he in particular spoke strongly about the effect of the Church on life in Ireland. A recurring theme in his novels is the concept of the Catholic priesthood. On several occasions he explores the idea of a priest losing his faith. At the same time, several of his novels are deeply sympathetic and affirming portrayals of the struggles of faith and religious commitment, Black Robe most prominently.

Acclaim

Graham Greene said that Moore was his favourite living novelist,[16] though Moore began to regard the label as "a bit of an albatross".[17]

Personal life

Moore was married twice. His first marriage, in 1952, was to Jacqueline ("Jackie") Sirois (née Scully), a French Canadian[6] and fellow-journalist with whom he had a son Michael in 1953.[18] They divorced in October 1967 and Jackie died in January 1976.[19] Moore married his second wife, Jean Denny, in October 1967.[19]

Death

Brian Moore died on 11 January 1999 at his home in Malibu, California, aged 77, from pulmonary fibrosis.[9] He had been working on a novel about the 19th-century French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud.[20] His last published work before his death was an essay entitled "Going Home".[10] It was a reflection inspired by a visit he made to the grave in Connemara of his family friend, the Irish nationalist Bulmer Hobson. The essay was commissioned by Granta and published in The New York Times on 7 February 1999.[10] Despite Moore's often conflicted attitude to Ireland and his Irishness, his concluding reflection in the piece was "The past is buried until, in Connemara, the sight of Bulmer Hobson's grave brings back those faces, those scenes, those sounds and smells which now live only in my memory. And in that moment I know that when I die I would like to come home at last to be buried here in this quiet place among the grazing cows."[10]

Legacy

The Creative Writers Network in Northern Ireland launched in 1996 the Brian Moore Short Story Awards, which are now open to all authors of Irish descent. Previous judges have included Glenn Patterson, Lionel Shriver, Carlo Gébler and Maeve Binchy.[21]

Moore has been the subject of two biographies, Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist (1998) by Denis Sampson and Brian Moore: A Biography (2002) by Patricia Craig.[22] Brian Moore and the Meaning of the Past (2007) by Patrick Hicks provides a critical retrospective of Moore's works. Information about the publishing of Moore's novel, Judith Hearne, and the break-up of his marriage can be found in Diana Athill's memoir, Stet (2000).[23]

In 1975 Moore arranged for his literary materials, letters and documents to be deposited in the Special Collections Division of the University of Calgary Library, an inventory of which (The Brian Moore Papers: First Accession and Second Accession) was published by the University of Calgary Press in 1987.[24] Moore's archives, which include unfilmed screenplays, drafts of various novels, working notes, a 42-volume journal (1957–1998), and his correspondence , are now at The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, at the University of Texas at Austin.[25]

Prizes and honours

Bibliography

Non-fiction and essays

Novels

Short story collection

Short stories

Playscripts

Screenplays

Other films based on Brian Moore's work

Films about Brian Moore

Interviews

Books and articles about Brian Moore and his work

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Dahlie, Hallvard (1999). "Brian Moore, 1921–99". In Memoriam. University of Calgary. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lee, Hermione (14 February 1993). "BOOK REVIEW / Nomadic life of Brian: It's hard to keep up with Brian Moore, an Irishman with Canadian citizenship living in Malibu whose new novel is based on Haiti. But it's time his work was acclaimed". Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Flanagan, Thomas (17 January 1999). "Brian Moore: An Appreciation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Brian Moore: Forever influenced by loss of faith". BBC Online. 12 January 1999. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  5. ↑ Cronin, John (13 January 1999). "Obituary: Shores of Exile". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  6. 1 2 Walsh, John (14 January 1999). "Obituary: Brian Moore". The Independent. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Brian Moore". Culture Northern Ireland. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  8. ↑ Flood, Jeanne (1974). Brian Moore. Bucknell University Press. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Smith, Denitia (12 January 1999). "Brian Moore, Prolific Novelist on Diverse Themes, Dies at 77". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Moore, Brian (7 February 1999). "Going Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  11. ↑ Spencer, Clare (6 May 2011). "Why do some schools produce clusters of celebrities?". BBC News. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  12. 1 2 Lynch, Gerald (10 April 2007). "Brian Moore". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  13. ↑ "Brian Moore". New York Review of Books. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  14. 1 2 Sampson, Denis (1998). Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.
  15. ↑ "Local Writing legends – Brian Moore: Growing Up". Get Writing NI. BBC. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  16. ↑ Prose, Francine (2 September 1990). "The Reluctant Terrorist". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  17. ↑ The Irish Times, 13 January 1999
  18. ↑ Byrne, James P; Coleman, Philip; King, Jason (2008). Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History, vol.1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO Inc. p. 610. ISBN 978-1-85109-614-5.
  19. 1 2 Craig, Patricia (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 194 and 224.
  20. ↑ Fulford, Robert (12 January 1999). "A writer who never failed to surprise his readers". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "Brian Moore Short Story Awards". Culture Northern Ireland. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  22. ↑ "Patricia Craig". Culture Northern Ireland. 5 September 2006. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  23. ↑ Athill, Diana (2000) Stet: a memoir, London: Granta ISBN 1-86207-388-0
  24. ↑ Dahlie, Hallvard (25 January 1999). "Brian Moore, 1921–99". Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  25. 1 2 "Brian Moore: A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers". Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  26. ↑ O'Toole, Fintan (17 January 1999). "Brian Moore: An Appreciation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  27. ↑ McSweeney, Kerry (1983). Four Contemporary Novelists. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press; London: Scolar Press. pp. 55–99. "The essential sameness of the Belfast of the post-1970 Troubles and the city he lived in from his birth in 1921 until his early twenties is the subject of Moore's finest piece of non-fictional prose."
  28. ↑ "The Mangan inheritance". Catalogue. Aberdeen City Council. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  29. 1 2 3 "Stage and Screen: A Brian Moore Filmography". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 87 (346): 142. Summer 1998. doi:10.2307/30091888.
  30. 1 2 3 "Famous works". Brian Moore Biography (1921–1999). Film Reference. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  31. ↑ "Our Collection: The Sight". National Film Board of Canada. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  32. ↑ Sauter, van Gordon (10 April 1988). "Just Color Moore a Novelist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  33. ↑ "Uncle T". National Film Board of Canada. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  34. ↑ "The Lonely Passion of Brian Moore". National Film Board of Canada. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  35. ↑ Sampson, Denis (March 1995). "'Home: A Moscow of the Mind': Notes on Brian Moore's Transition to North America". Colby Quarterly. 31 (1): 46–54.

External links

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