Moore, Ruth 1903-1989

PERSONAL:

Born 1903, in Gotts Island, ME; died December, 1989, in Bass Harbor, ME; daughter of Philip (an operator of local post office, general store, and boarding house) and Lovina (an operator of local post office, general store, and boarding house) Moore; longtime companion of Eleanor Mayo (a writer, photographer, and local politician). Education: Albany State Teacher's College (now State University of New York at Albany), graduated, 1925; briefly attended University of Maine, 1931.

CAREER:

Worked as a schoolteacher in New York, NY, c. 1925; personal secretary to Mary White Ovington, New York, NY, 1926-29; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Baltimore, MD, assistant campaign manager, c. 1929-30; assistant to Reverend John Haynes Holmes, New York, NY, 1932-35, and novelist Alice Tisdale Hobart, 1935-41; secretary in New York, NY, 1941-42; Reader's Digest, New York, NY, editor, 1942-47; novelist, beginning 1947.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Weir, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1943.

Spoonhandle, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1946.

The Fire Balloon, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1948.

Candlemas Bay, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1950.

Jeb Ellis of Candlemas Bay, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1952.

A Fair Wind Home, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1953.

Speak to the Winds, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1956.

The Walk down Main Street, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1960.

Second Growth, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1962.

The Sea Flower, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1964.

The Gold and Silver Hooks, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1969.

Lizzie and Caroline, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.

The Dinosaur Bite, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1976.

Sarah Walked over the Mountain, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1979.

OTHER

Cold as a Dog and the Wind Northeast: Ballads, illustrated by Doug Anderson, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1958.

Time's Web (poetry), William Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.

The Tired Apple Tree (poetry), Blackberry Press (Brunswick, ME), 1990.

High Clouds Soaring, Storms Driving Low: The Letters of Ruth Moore, Blackberry Press (Brunswick, ME), 1993.

Some sources also cite Moore as coauthor of When Foley Craddock Tore Off My Grandfather's Thumb: The Collected Stories of Ruth Moore and Eleanor Mayo, 2004. Contributor of poetry, essays, and short stories to periodicals, including New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, American Girl, Puckerbrush Review, Tuesday Weekly, and Saturday Review of Literature.

Moore's works were published in Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, and Norwegian.

ADAPTATIONS:

The novel Spoonhandle was adapted as the screenplay Deep Waters, released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1948. Moore's first poetry collection and some additional ballads were recorded on the spoken-word album Cold as a Dog and the Wind Northeast, read by Gordon Bok, released by Timberhead (Camden, ME) in 1986; other sound recordings include poetry included in Downeast Ballads, read by Jackson Gillman, Maine Squeeze Productions (Mount Desert, ME), 1987.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

University of Maine Division of Lifelong Learning Web site,http://dll.umaine.edu/ (February 10, 2007), Jennifer Craig Pixley, "Homesick for That Place: Ruth Moore Writes about Maine."