Bring the Jubilee

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ward Moore (1903—1978) was described by various editors as “a chicken farmer from New Jersey,” the dean of unhistory, and the only native Californian ever born in Canada. Born in Madison, New Jersey, and raised in Montreal, he moved as an adolescent to New York, where he was expelled from DeWitt Clinton High School for political activism.

In his early twenties, he opened a bookstore on Chicago's Near North side, relocated it to Palm Springs, then continued west to Los Angeles as a member of the WPA Writers Project. After a wartime job on the San Francisco docks, he returned to Southern California to raise children and goats in Topanga Canyon and to work as a contract gardener. He moved his household repeatedly: to Redondo Beach, twice to New York, and once to Arkansas.

Even before he made his mark on science fiction, Ward Moore was known for his work outside the field, beginning with the novel Breathe the Air Again (1942). His first science-fiction publication called on his gardening experience; Greener Than You Think was about the disastrous introduction of mutated grass that overruns the world. Moore also wrote two notable tales of nuclear holocaust, “Lot” (1953) and “Lot’s Daughter” (1954), comparing modern Los Angeles to Sodom. His most famous work, by far, is the classic alternate history Bring the Jubilee (1953).