Christopher Moore (born January 1, 1957)
[ is an American writer.
]
Early life
Christopher Moore was born in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
[ and grew up in ]Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield is a city in Richland County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 47,534 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located approximately from Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Columbus via Interstate 71, it i ...
.
An only child, Moore learned to amuse himself with his imagination. He loved reading and his father brought him plenty of books from the library every week. He started writing around the age of twelve and realized that this was his talent by the time he was 16, and he began to consider making it his career.
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
and Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
.
Writing career
Moore's novels typically involve conflicted everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
characters struggling through supernatural or extraordinary circumstances. With the possible exceptions of '' Fool'', ''The Serpent of Venice'', ''Sacré Bleu'', and ''Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel'', all his books take place in the same universe and some characters recur from novel to novel.
According to his interview in the June 2007 issue of ''Writer's Digest
''Writer's Digest'' is an American magazine aimed at beginning and established writers. It contains interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles.
History
''Writer's Digest'' was first published in December 1920 und ...
'', the film rights to Moore's first novel, '' Practical Demonkeeping'' (1992), were purchased by Disney even before the book had a publisher. In answer to repeated questions from fans over the years, Moore stated that all of his books have been optioned or sold for films, but that as yet "none of them are in any danger of being made into a movie."Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...
, Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...
, John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...
, Tom Robbins
Thomas Eugene Robbins (July 22, 1932 – February 9, 2025) was an American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy dramas"). Robbins had lived in La Conner, Washington, since 1970, where he wrote nine of his ...
, Richard Brautigan
Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. He wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. Brautigan's work has been publi ...
, Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and ...
, Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science ficti ...
, Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright.
His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...
, H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Born in Provi ...
, Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
and Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...
as key influences on his writing.
Personal life
As of June 2006, Moore lives in San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, after a few years on the island of Kauai
Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands.
It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...
, Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
.
Bibliography
Novels
Moore's novels typically take place in the same fictional universe since characters from one book frequently turn up as minor characters or have cameos in other books. Some novels with a common protagonist or setting can be grouped into series; however, with the exception of the vampire books and the Death Merchant Chronicles, they can all be read as stand-alone novels.
Pine Cove
* '' Practical Demonkeeping'' (1992)
* '' The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove'' (1999)
* '' The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror'' (2004) William Morrow
** ''The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, v. 2.0'' (2005) – contains the same text as the above, with an additional 35-page short story at the end
''A Love Story''
# '' Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story'' (1995)
# '' You Suck: A Love Story'' (2007) William Morrow
# '' Bite Me: A Love Story'' (2010) William Morrow
Death Merchant Chronicles
* '' A Dirty Job'' (2006) William Morrow
* ''Secondhand Souls'' (2015) HarperCollins Publishers
Chronicles of Pocket the Fool
* '' Fool'' (2009) William Morrow
* ''The Serpent of Venice'' (2014) William Morrow
The Tales of Sammy "Two Toes"
* ''Noir'' (2018) New York: William Morrow
* ''Razzmatazz'' (2022) William Morrow
Other novels
* '' Coyote Blue'' (1994)
* '' Island of the Sequined Love Nun'' (1997)
Short stories
*"Our Lady of the Fishnet Stockings" (1987)
*"Cat's Karma" (1987)
Other works
*''The Griff: A Graphic Novel'' (2011, co-written with Ian Corson and illustrated by Jennyson Rosero, originally conceived in 2001 as a movie script) William Morrow
References
* "The WD Interview: Christopher Moore", ''Writer's Digest'', June 2007, pp. 58–62.
External links
*
*
Interview at Book Reviews and More
Interview at Windycon 42 Blog
conducted by John O'Neill, 4/24/2015.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Christopher
1957 births
Living people
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
American fantasy writers
American humanists
American humorists
American male novelists
Comedians from Toledo, Ohio
Novelists from Ohio