About The Author

C.L. Moore was one of the most popular and significant writers of fantastic literature for the Pulp magazines of the early twentieth century, and perhaps the most significant woman in early twentieth century fantastic literature. She was a friend and correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Leigh Brackett, and other luminaries of the period. Her stories, published throughout the thirties and forties in Weird Tales, Astounding and other popular pulp magazines, were instrumental in the development of modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Much of her writing focused on the fantastic, although she also wrote in other genres.

Her stories span virtually the entire width and breadth of pulp fiction: tales of fantasy, science fiction, horror, murder, blackmail, and even mythology. Among the nine stories collected here you will find heroes and monsters, spaceships and ray-guns, time travel and other exotic technologies----all of the trappings of conventional, pedestrian science fiction; but the stories themselves are anything but typical.

The universe of Catherine Moore’s imagination is unconventional, stunning and sometimes terrifying. There is no certainty anywhere: not in man, not in nature, and not in God. One cannot be certain upon starting one of her stories that the Hero will get the girl and defeat the villain, or even that the hero will survive at all. Good does not necessarily triumph over evil. True love, while extraordinarily powerful, does not conquer all.

Born in 1911 in Indianapolis, Indiana, her professional career began with the publication of “Shambleau” in Weird Tales magazine in 1934. She is described by contemporaries as having been “…an attractive young woman, very beautiful, very pleasant. (Davin, 1999)”. She worked for many years as a secretary in a bank in Indianapolis, but writing was her true avocation. She says in a brief 1936 autobiographical note, “I was reared on a diet of Greek mythology, Oz books, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, so you can see I never had a chance. […] As soon as I could talk I began telling long, obscure tales to anyone I could corner. When I learned to write I wrote them, and I’ve been at it ever since.”

For most of her career, she worked in close collaboration with her first husband, Henry Kuttner, a well-regarded author in his own right. Together they wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, and scripts for film, television and radio under numerous pen names (including the story "Mimsy Were The Borogoves", recently adapted as a major motion picture). The two originally met through a fan letter Kuttner sent to “Mr. Moore”. This sparked correspondence, friendship, and collaboration—the first story the two of them wrote together was “The Quest Of The Star Stone” in 1937. They were married in 1940. Their working relationship, characterized by bibliographer Virgil Utter as “a marriage of souls and talent”, is described by their friend and contemporary Julius Schwartz:

“On one occasion I was invited to spend the weekend with Henry Kuttner at the home he shared with his wife, Catherine L. Moore, at Hastings--on--Hudson in New York state. About midnight Catherine went up to bed while Henry and I talked a little while longer. When it was time for me to hit the sack on the spare cot downstairs in the area of the house where the two did their writing, Kuttner took up his place on the other side of the room and set out to get some writing done. I eventually nodded off to the music of Henry Kuttner at the typewriter. Kuttner quit work at about 4:00 A.M. and the sudden interruption of keystrokes and his footsteps on the stairs woke me up. I turned over and was just nodding off again when the typewriter music began again with a slightly different pace and keystroke. Catherine had taken her husband’s place and was taking up right where he left off. They were really good collaborators, and their work together was so seamless that not even they could tell where one had left off and the other had started. Kuttner was the better plotter, but Catherine was the better craftsman in terms of literary ability.”

Together they wrote more than a hundred short stories, a dozen novel--length works intended for magazine publication, half a dozen original paper-- or hardback books, and an indefinite number of other works for film, television, and radio—under many different pen names.

The most frequent pen name used was “Lewis Padgett”. Others included “Keith Hammond” (one of Kuttner’s earlier pen names), “Hudson Hastings” (derived from the location of their New York home, at Hastings on the Hudson), “C.H. Liddell” (a wordplay on “Chicken Little” incorporating their first initials, originally used for a story called “The Sky Is Falling”), and “Lawrence O’Donnell”. In some cases, stories under several pen names might appear in a single publication (certain magazines from the mid--forties are almost Kuttner--Moore anthologies). As they continued to work together, Henry Kutttner and C.L. Moore in effect merged into a single creative entity, and for this reason, the definitive attribution of authorship is problematic in some cases. Modern editors have generally tended to avoid the issue and give both authors equal credit. In this volume we have collected only those stories generally accepted to be the work of Moore alone.

Into the 1950’s, they concentrated more on crime and detective fiction, and wrote for television and radio. As of late 1957, they had completed a script for Universal Pictures’ “Tales Of Frankenstein” television series, and had started two screenplay projects for Warner Brothers: a film script based on the novel Rapacinni’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a screenplay for the Television western Sugarfoot.

Then Henry Kuttner died of a sudden heart attack on February 12, 1958.

In the next few years, Catherine completed the script work they had begun together—although the film of Rapaccini’s Daughter was never produced. She continued to write for television, contributing four additional scripts to Sugarfoot, one to The Alaskans, one to the short--lived series Monsieur Garlund, one to Maverick and two to 77 Sunset Strip. She did not write any more fiction. She married Thomas Reggie in 1963, and lived in Hollywood, California. She received several significant awards, Including:

First Fandom Hall of Fame, 1972

Forrry Award, 1973

Count Dracula Society Award for Literature, 1977

Hugo, Gandalf Award, 1981

World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1981

Gernsback Award, 1983

After dealing with altzheimers, she died in 1987.

For readers interested in discovering more of the extraordinary and fantastic writing of Catherine Moore, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The eighteen stories she wrote in the thirties for Weird Tales magazine, and upon which her later reputation was largely based, were first collected in book form more than fifty years ago, in the Gnome Press volumes Shambleau And Others and Northwest Of Earth. In the decades since, these stories—all of them featuring space hero Northwest Smith, fantasy heroine Jirel of Joiry, or both—have remained in print, albeit reshuffled and re-released in many forms and under many titles. Most recently, Planet Stories has released seventeen interrelated tales in two volumes: Black God’s Kiss and Northwest Of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith. The novel-length collection Judgment Night (containing the stories “Judgment Night”, “Paradise Street”, “Promised Land”, “The Code” and “Heir Apparent”—all but the first originally published under the name “Lawrence O’Donnell”) is available from Red Jacket Press in a replica facsimile reproduction of the original 1952 Gnome Press hardback. The stories “Daemon”, “No Woman Born”, and “Vintage Season” can be found in the exhaustive 2004 collection of Moore-Kuttner collaborative material, The Two-Handed Engine, edited by Donald Curtis, In addition, several of the stories in the 2007 Kuttner collection The Last Mimzy: Stories were written in collaboration with Moore.

IAN LOHR, EDITOR

Partial Bibliography

As noted in the introduction, most of C.L. Moore’s work was done in collaboration with Henry Kuttner, much of this under a surprising number of pen names. Research into exactly how much writing they did, and under how many names, is still ongoing—however about half a dozen are well--authenticated. Lewis Padgett is perhaps the best known, although Keith Hammond and Lawrence O’Donnell also produced a significant body of work. For the purposes of this work, the other pen names of interest are C.H. Liddell and Hudson Hastings.

In three cases—“Clash By Night”, “The Children’s Hour” and “Cold War”—sources variously attribute authorship to Kuttner exclusively, Moore exclusively, or some degree of collaboration. This is, perhaps, an indication of how well their styles had merged by this time.

“Shambleau”, Weird Tales, November 1933

“Black Thirst”, Weird Tales, April 1934

“Scarlet Dream”, Weird Tales, May 1934

“Dust of Gods”, Weird Tales, August 1934

“The Bright Illusion”, Astounding, October 1934

“Black God's Kiss”, Weird Tales, October 1934

“Black God's Shadow”, Weird Tales, December 1934

“Julhi”, Weird Tales, March 1935

“Nymph of Darkness” (with Forrest J Ackerman), Fantasy Magazine, April 1935

“Jirel Meets Magic”, Weird Tales, July 1935

“The Challenge From Beyond (Part 1 of 5)”, Fantasy Magazine, September 1935 [editor’s note: the remaining four parts of “The Challenge From Beyond” were written by A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long, respectively]

“Greater Glories”, Astounding, September 1935

“The Cold Gray God”, Weird Tales, October 1935

“The Dark Land”, Weird Tales, January 1936

“Yvala”, Weird Tales, February 1936

“Lost Paradise”, Weird Tales, July 1936

“The Tree of Life”, Weird Tales, October 1936

“Tryst in Time”, Astounding, December 1936

“Quest of the Starstone” (with Henry Kuttner), Weird Tales, Nov. 1937

“Werewoman”, Leaves #2, 1938

“Miracle in Three Dimensions”, Strange Stories, April 1939

“Hellsgarde”, Weird Tales, April 1939

“Greater Than Gods”, Astounding, July 1939

“Fruit of Knowledge”, Street And Smith’s Unknown, October 1940

“Song in a Minor Key”, Scienti--Snaps, February 1940

“There Shall Be Darkness”, Astounding, February 1942

“Deadlock” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, August 1942

“The Twonky” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, September 1942

“Piggy Bank” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, December 1942

“Clash By Night (with Henry Kuttner, as Lawrence O’Donnell), Astounding, March 1943

“Shock” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, March 1943

“Earth's Last Citadel” (with Henry Kuttner), Argosy, April 1943 (paperback, 1964)

“Open Secret” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, April 1943

“Judgment Night”, Astounding, August and September 1943

“Doorway Into Time”, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1943

“Endowment Policy” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, August 1943

“The Iron Standard” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, December 1943

“The Children’s Hour” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lawrence O’Donnell, Astounding, March 1944

“When the Bough Breaks” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, November 1944

“No Woman Born”, Astounding, December 1944

“The Code” (as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, July 1945

“Camouflage” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, September 1945

“What You Need” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, October 1945

“Line to Tomorrow” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, Nov 1945

“Beggars in Velvet” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, Dec 1945

“The Fairy Chessmen” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, January and February 1946

“This is the House” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, February 1946

“We Kill People” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, Mar 1946

“Valley of the Flame” (with Henry Kuttner, as Keith Hammond), Startling Stories, March 1946 (paperback as by Henry Kuttner, 1964)

“The Dark World” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Startling Stories, Summer 1946. (paperback as by Henry Kuttner, 1965)

“Rain Check” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, July 1946

“Vintage Season” (as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, September 1946

“Daemon”, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, October 1946

“Call Him Demon” (with Henry Kuttner, as Keith Hammond), Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall 1946

“Time Enough” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, December 1946

The Brass Ring (With Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), 1946 (paperback version as Murder In Brass, 1947)

The Day He Died (With Henry Kuttner, As Lewis Padgett), 1947

“Project” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, April 1947

“Lands of the Earthquake” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner) Startling Stories, May 1947

“Jesting Pilot” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, May 1947

Fury (With Henry Kuttner, As Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, May, June, and July 1947 (paperback version as Destination: Infinity! by Henry Kuttner, 1950; a 1974 edition includes introduction by C. L. Moore)

“Lord Of The Storm” (with Henry Kuttner, as Keith Hammond) Startling Stories, September 1947

“Margin for Error” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, November 1947

“The Big Night” (with Henry Kuttner, as Hudson Hastings), Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1947

“Noon” (with Henry Kuttner, as Hudson Hastings), Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947

“Dark Dawn” (with Henry Kuttner, as Keith Hammond), Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947

“Margin for Error” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, November 1947

“The Mask of Circe” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Startling Stories, May 1948 (paperback 1971, some editions as by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)

“The Time Axis” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Startling Stories, January 1949 (paperback version, 1965)

“Private Eye” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, January 1949

“The Prisoner in the Skull” (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), Astounding, February 1949

“The Portal In The Picture” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Startling Stories, September 1949 (paperback as Beyond Earth’s Gates by Lewis Padgett With C. L. Moore”, 1954, as a double novel back--to--back with Daybreak 2250 by Andre Norton)

“Cold War” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949

A Gnome There Was (with Henry Kuttner, as by Lewis Padgett) 1950 collection includes: [fill in]

“Promised Land” (as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, February 1950

“Heir Apparent” (as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, July 1950

“Paradise Street” (as Lawrence O'Donnell), Astounding, September 1950

“Carry Me Home” (with Henry Kuttner, as C H Liddell), Planet Stories, November 1950

“Golden Apple” (with Henry Kuttner, As C.H. Liddell), Famous Fantastic Mysteries, March 1951

“Android” (with Henry Kuttner, as C. H. Liddel), The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, June 1951

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and the Fairy Chessmen: Two Novels Of Science Fiction (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett), 1951

“We Shall Come Back” (with Henry Kuttner, as C.H. Liddell) SF Quarterly, November 1951

Judgment Night, 1952 [collects “Judgment Night”, “Paradise Street”, “Promised Land”, “The Code” and “Heir Apparent”]

“The Well of the Worlds” (uncredited collaboration with Henry Kuttner), Startling Stories, March 1952 (some editions as by Lewis Padgett)

“Or Else” (with Henry Kuttner), Amazing, Aug/Sept 1953

“Home Is the Hunter” (with Henry Kuttner), Galaxy, July 1953

Shambleau and Others, 1953 [collects “Shambleau”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “Black Thirst”, “The Tree Of Life”, “Jirel Meets Magic”, “Scarlet Dream”]

“A Wild Surmise” (with Henry Kuttner), Star SF Stories #1, F. Pohl ed, Ballantine, 1953

Northwest of Earth, 1954 [collects “The Cold Gray God”, “The Dark Land”, “Dust Of Gods”, “Hellesgarde”, “Julhi”, “Lost Paradise”, and “Yvala”]

Line To Tomorrow (with Henry Kuttner, as Lewis Padgett, collection includes: (1954)

“Where The World Is Quiet” (with Henry Kuttner, as C.H. Liddell), Fantastic Universe, May 1954

“Two--Handed Engine”, (with Henry Kuttner), The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, August 1955

No Boundaries (With Henry Kuttner), 1955 [collects “Vintage Season”, “The Devil We Know”, the original story “Home There’s No Returning”, “Exit The Professor” and “Two--Handed Engine”]

“Rite of Passage”(with Henry Kuttner), The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, Mar 1956

Doomsday Morning, 1957 (paperback version, 1987)

Shambleau, 1958 [collects “Shambleau”, “Black Thirst” and “The Tree Of Life”]

Jirel of Joiry, 1969 [collects “Jirel Meets Magic”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “The Dark Land” and “Hellesgarde”]

Shambleau (1966) [Editor’s note: British Edition; collects “Black God’s Kiss”, “Shambleau”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “Black Thirst”, “The Tree of Life”, and “Scarlet Dream”]

The Best of C. L. Moore (Lester del Rey, editor), 1975 [collects “Shambleau”, “Black Thirst”, “The Bright Illusion”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Tryst In Time”, “Greater Than Gods”, “Fruit Of Knowledge”, “Daemon”, “No Woman Born” and “Vintage Season”]

Black God’s Shadow, 1981[collects “Jirel Meets Magic”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “The Dark Land” and “Hellesgarde” with new illustrations by Alicia Austin]

Scarlet Dream, 1981 [collects “Shambleau”, “Black Thirst”, “The Tree Of Life”, “Scarlet Dream”, “Dust Of The Gods”, “Lost Paradise”, “Julhi”, “The Cold Gray God”, “Yvala”, and “Song In A Minor Key”, with new illustrations by Alicia Austin]

Northwest Smith, 1986 [collects “Shambleau”, “Black Thirst”, “The Tree Of Life”, “Scarlet Dream”, “Dust Of The Gods”, “Lost Paradise”, “Julhi”, “The Cold Gray God”, “Yvala”, and “Song In A Minor Key”]

Black Gods And Scarlet Dreams, 1999 [collects “Jirel Meets Magic”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “The Dark Land”, “Hellesgarde”]

The Two--Handed Engine, with Henry Kuttner, 2004 [collects “Shambleau”, “The Graveyard Rats”, “A Gnome There Was”, “The Twonky”, “Compliments Of The Author”, “Mimsy Were The Borogoves”, “Shock”, “Reader, I Hate You”, “The World Is Mine”, “When The Bough Breaks”, “The Cure”, “The Code”, “Line To Tomorrow”, “Clash By Night”, “Ghost”, “The Proud Robot”, “Nothing But Gingerbread Left”, “”No Woman Born”, “Housing Problem”, “What You Need”, “Absalom”, “Call Him Demon”, “Vintage Season”, “Dark Angel”, “Before I Wake”, “Exit The Professor”, “The Big Night”, “A Wild Surmise”, “Don’t Look Now”, “Private Eye”, “By These Presents”, “Home Is The Hunter”, “Or Else”, “Year Day”, “A Cross OF Centuries”, and “Two--Handed Engine”]

Black Gods Kiss, 2007 [collects “Jirel Meets Magic”, “Black God’s Kiss”, “Black God’s Shadow”, “The Dark Land”, “Hellesgarde” and “The Quest Of The Star--Stone” (With Henry Kuttner)]

Miracle In Three Dimensions And Other Stories, 2008

Northwest Of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith, 2008 [forthcoming]

Television (by Catherine Kuttner, unless noted):

Tales Of Frankenstein, “The Face In The Tombstone Mirror”, originally transmitted February, 1958 (as by Catherine and Henry Kuttner, from a story by Curt Siodmak). Sugarfoot, “A Price On His Head”, originally transmitted April 29, 1958 (by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, from a story by Pamela Herbert and Leo Guild); “The Wizard”, originally transmitted October 14, 1958; “The Ghost”, originally transmitted October 28, 1958 [editor’s note: based on her original story “Bury Me Not”]; “The Mountain”, originally transmitted March 31, 1959 editor’s note: based on her story, “Dangerous Land”], “The Trial Of The Canary Kid”, originally transmitted September 15, 1959 (from a story by Montgomery Pittman).

The Alaskans, “The Big Deal”, originally transmitted November 8, 1959.

77 Sunset Strip, “The Antwerp Caper”, originally transmitted December 2, 1960 (with George Waggner); “The Diplomatic Caper”, originally broadcast January 26, 1962. Monsieur Garlund, “The Towers”, originally transmitted September 1960 (with Robert W. Campbell). Maverick, “Family Pride”, originally transmitted January 8, 1961