Arthur Harold Moss (November 1889 in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

– February 20, 1969 in Neuilly-sur-Marne) was an American

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and magazine editor.

Life

His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. After serving in World War I, he attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

for three years, but dropped out.

''The Quill''

In 1917, he returned to Greenwich Village, founding ''The Quill'' with partner Harold Hersey and was managing editor and wrote articles. It included artists Clara Tice,

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, Mark Tobey and Alfred J Frueh; writers included Ben De Casseres. He married

Millia Davenport Millia Crotty Davenport (March 30, 1895 – January 18, 1992) was an American costumer, theater designer, and scholar, known for her 1948 work ''The Book of Costume''. Biography Millia Davenport was born March 30, 1895, in Cambridge, Massachus ...

(1895–1992) and worked with her at ''The Quill''. They co-authored, ''The Quill: For And By Greenwich Village'', vol.4, no.8, 1919. They separated shortly thereafter. She went on to design costumes, and in 1948 wrote ''The Book of Costume''. In 1920, he hired his future wife Florence Gilliam to edit ''Quill''. In 1921 they moved to Paris, into a small apartment near Shakespeare and Company, the bookstore owned by

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''Gargoyle''

In August 1921, they began publishing ''Gargoyle'', an intense literary magazine. ''Gargoyle'' published reproductions of

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris ...

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, a ...

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. Writers contributing to the publication included

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works includ ...

, Robert Coates,

Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return' ...

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, ''The Bridge ...

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, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which wa ...

. Without outside backing and lacking a subscriber base, in October 1922, ''Gargoyle'' ceased publication. For the next few years Arthur would write a column for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and the ''Paris Herald''.

Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

and his wife moved to Paris in December 1921. He loved books and frequented Shakespeare and Company where he met Moss, who convinced Hemingway to submit articles to ''Gargoyle''. These early writings drew the attention of

Robert McAlmon Robert Menzies McAlmon (also used Robert M. McAlmon, as his signature name, March 9, 1895 – February 2, 1956) was an American writer, poet, and publisher. In the 1920s, he founded in Paris the publishing house, Contact Editions, where he publ ...

. The original writings are now in the JFK Library.

''Boulevardier''

In 1927 Arthur began publishing ''Boulevardier'' with Erskine Gwynne. Patterned after ''The New Yorker'', one of the regular illustrators was

Raymond Peynet Raymond Peynet (16 November 1908 – 14 January 1999) was a French cartoonist who was born in Paris and died in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes). He is known for having created the couple of lovers in 1942 which he represented through a variety of mediums ...

. Contributors included Michael Arlen,

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combina ...

Louis Bromfield Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) was an American writer and conservationist. A bestselling novelist in the 1920s, he reinvented himself as a farmer in the late 1930s and became one of the earliest proponents of sustainab ...

and

. Moss and Gilliam divorced in 1931. By 1932 he married Evalyn Marvel. He was survived by his widow Doreen Vidal.

Works

* * * * * *

Non-fiction

"The Turkish Myth", ''The Nation'', Arthur Moss & Florence Gilliam, June 23, 1923

Editor

References

External links

"Author Moss", ''The Lost Generation''''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2009. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Author 1889 births 1969 deaths American male poets American expatriates in France American magazine editors Cornell University alumni 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers