She was born on January 24, 1911 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her first stories appeared in pulp magazines in the 1930s, including two significant series in Weird Tales. One was about the rogue and adventurer, Northwest Smith, and his wanderings through the Solar System; the other was a fantasy series about Jirel of Joiry (one of the first female protagonists in sword-and-sorcery fiction). Her early stories were notable for their emphasis on the senses and emotions, which was highly unusual at the time.
She met Henry Kuttner, who was also a science fiction writer, in 1938, and they married two years later. Afterwards, almost all of their stories were written together, under various pseudonyms. In this very prolific collaboration, they often managed to combine Moore's style with Kuttner's more cerebral one. Their stories include the now-classic "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" and "Vintage Season". After Kuttner's death in 1958, she wrote almost no fiction.
C. L. Moore died on April 4, 1987 at her home in Hollywood, California.
More detailed biographical information can be found here. (http://www.redjacketpress.com/authors/cl_moore.html)
Partial bibliography
Earth's Last Citadel (1943)
The Mask of Circe (1948)
Beyond Earth's Gates (1949)
Judgment Night (http://www.redjacketpress.com/books/judgment_night.html) (1952)
Jirel's adventures, if read one after the other, show an obvious recycling of a similar story: the warrior woman gets transported to a magical reality and fights her way through it, facing an adversary who plies her emotional frailties.
Jirel reacts with revulsion to most of it, but another instinct also causes her to shed tears for the land, which feels as if it writhes in pain.
Jirel of course will not have him, and she negotiates a deal: he will allow her to search for a weapon that can slay him, but if she fails she must surrender herself to him.
One series concerns the rogue and adventurer, Northwest Smith, and his wanderings through the Solar System; the other is a short fantasy series about Jirel of Joiry (one of the first female protagonists in sword-and-sorcery fiction).
The first and most famous of the Jirel of Joiry stories is Black God’s Kiss, which received the cover illustration (painted by Margaret Brundage) in the October 1934 Weird Tales.
Their stories include the now-classic "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" and "Vintage Season." They also collaborated on a story that combined Moore’s signature characters, Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry: Quest of the Starstone (1937).
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