Moore, Brian

born Aug. 25, 1921, Belfast, N.Ire.

died Jan. 10, 1999, Malibu, Calif., U.S.

Irish-born Canadian novelist.

Moore immigrated to Canada in 1948 and was a writer for the Montreal Gazette from 1952. He is best known for his first novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955; film, 1987), about an aging spinster whose pretensions to gentility are gradually dissolved in alcoholism. His later novels include The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960), The Emperor of Ice Cream (1965), The Doctor's Wife (1976), and The Magician's Wife (1998). His novels were very different from each other in voice, setting, and incident but alike in their lucid, elegant, and vivid prose.

* * *

▪ 2000

      Irish-born Canadian writer (b. Aug. 25, 1921, Belfast, N.Ire.—d. Jan. 10/11, 1999, Malibu, Calif.), produced taut thrillers and was especially adept at examining lives from a female perspective and at the various crossroads—a change in political or religious belief—that force a reevaluation to occur in a person's life. He won two Governor-General's Awards, for The Luck of Ginger Coffey in 1961 and The Great Victorian Collection in 1976; 5 of his 19 novels were filmed; and he wrote the screenplays for 5 other motion pictures. Following World War II service as a civilian volunteer, Moore worked in Eastern Europe for two years with the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and then (1948) moved to Canada. He went to work on the Montreal Gazette, took Canadian citizenship, and began writing fiction. After having written thrillers under the name Michael Bryan, Moore succeeded, after 10 rejections from American publishers, in getting his first serious book published in Great Britain. Judith Hearne, about the bleak loneliness of an alcoholic Belfast spinster, appeared in 1955 and was an instant success. It was then (1956) published in the U.S. and later republished in the U.K. as The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and it was filmed under that title in 1987. Moore lived in New York City in the early 1960s and moved to California in the mid-'60s, but he kept his Canadian citizenship and frequently vacationed in Nova Scotia. Among his other books were The Feast of Lupercal (1957), an erotic yet innocent tale in which a schoolteacher spends a night with a young girl; Catholics (1972), an anticlerical novella; Black Robe (1985; filmed 1991), about a Jesuit missionary in Quebec; The Colour of Blood (1987), a political thriller; and his last work, The Magician's Wife (1997), a story about a French magician sent to Algeria to dupe Muslim clerics. Moore's screenplays included Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966).

* * *

▪ Canadian author

born Aug. 25, 1921, Belfast, N.Ire.

died Jan. 10, 1999, Malibu, Calif., U.S.

      Irish novelist who immigrated to Canada and then to the United States. Known as a “writer's writer,” he composed novels that were very different from each other in voice, setting, and incident but alike in their lucid, elegant, and vivid prose.

      Moore, who was reared as a Roman Catholic, left his homeland after graduating from St. Malachy's College in Belfast. He served in the British Ministry of War Transport during World War II, traveling to North Africa, Italy, and France. In 1948 he went to Canada, where he worked at various newspaper jobs and became a Canadian citizen. During this period he began to write fiction with the intent to publish. Though he had emigrated from Northern Ireland and abandoned his religious faith, he wrote piercingly perceptive prose about the restrictions of religion and the isolation of individuals. His first and best-known novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955; filmed 1987), deals with an aging spinster whose crumbling pretensions to past and future gentility are gradually dissolved in alcoholism. Its sympathetic but clear-eyed storytelling revealed an understated brilliance of perception that would characterize all of Moore's work.

      His next novel, The Feast of Lupercal (1957), took on the subject of a bachelor schoolteacher's sexual maladjustment, and The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960; filmed 1964) portrayed a middle-aged Irish failure who hopes to charm his way to fortune. Moore's later novels range widely in locale and subject matter: Black Robe (1985; filmed 1991) was set in early colonial Canada, The Colour of Blood (1987) examined life behind the Iron Curtain, and No Other Life (1993) was based on contemporary events in Haiti. Among his other novels are The Emperor of Ice Cream (1965), The Doctor's Wife (1976), and The Magician's Wife (1998). He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock, Sir Alfred)'s Torn Curtain (1966).

* * *