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.