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Ward Moore

2025-08-28T14:23:30Z

2600:1004:B330:B905:3124:6DA2:8DB9:E3C6: Dashes rather than hyphens in this context

{{Short description|American writer of fiction}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Ward Moore
| image = Ward Moore from Greener Than You Think dust jacket.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Portrait from the dust jacket for "Greener Than You Think"
| birth_name = Joseph Ward Moore
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1903|08|10}}
| birth_place = [[Madison, New Jersey]], USA
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|01|29|1903|08|10}}
| death_place = [[Pacific Grove, California]], USA
| nationality =
| pseudonym =
| occupation =
| period =
| genre =
}}
'''Joseph Ward Moore''' (August 10, 1903 – January 29, 1978) was an American [[science fiction]] writer. According to ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'', "he contributed only infrequently to the field, [but] each of his books became something of a classic."<ref name=SFE/>

==Writer== 
Moore began publishing with the [[novel]] ''Breathe the Air Again'' (1942), about the onset of the [[Great Depression]]. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, and Ward Moore himself appears briefly as a character in the novel.

His most famous work is the [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] novel ''[[Bring the Jubilee]]'' (1953). This novel, narrated by Hodge Backmaker, tells of a world in which [[Confederate States of America|the South]] won the [[American Civil War]], leaving [[Union (American Civil War)|the North]] in ruins.

Moore's other novels include ''Cloud by Day'', in which a brush fire threatens the fictional town of Lugar Pass, which is purported to be in San Diego County near Fallbrook, California; ''Greener Than You Think'', a novel about unstoppable [[Bermuda grass]]; ''Joyleg'' (co-authored with [[Avram Davidson]]), which assumes the survival of the [[State of Franklin]]; and ''Caduceus Wild'' (co-authored with [[Robert Bradford (author)|Robert Bradford]]), about a medarchy, a nation governed by physicians.

Moore is also known for the two [[short story|short stories]] (since collected) "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954), which are [[postapocalyptic]] tales with parallels to the [[Bible]]. His short story "Adjustment", in which an ordinary man adjusts to a never-never land in which his wishes are fulfilled and makes the environment adjust to him as well, has been reprinted several times.
Another postapocalyptic story is Moore's 1951 story "Flying Dutchman", which uses the myth of the ''[[Flying Dutchman]]'' – a legendary ship supposed to be doomed to forever wander the oceans and never reach port – as a metaphor for an automated bomber which continues to fly over an Earth where humanity long since totally destroyed itself and all life in a nuclear war.<ref>{{cite book|author=David Seed|title=American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTHfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT126|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95382-9|page=126}}</ref>

==Biography==

Moore was born in [[Madison, New Jersey]], a western suburb of New York City. His parents were Jewish and had married in 1902, the previous year. His grandfather Joseph Solomon Moore (1821–1892) had been a successful German-born commission merchant and the statistician of the New York custom house, the author of several books on the tariff question and a friend of [[Carl Schurz]]. Five months after Ward Moore's birth, he moved with his parents to [[Montreal]], where his mother's family lived. In 1913, they returned to New York.

Moore's parents divorced and remarried around this time, and his father died in 1916. His mother's second husband and Moore's stepfather was the noted German jazz band leader {{interlanguage link|Julian Fuhs|de}}. Moore attended [[De Witt Clinton High School]] in New York, where—according to one widely repeated story—he was expelled for antiwar activity during World War I; elsewhere, he claimed that he dropped out of school in order to write. He later attended Columbia College.

Moore claimed to have spent several years tramping around the United States as a hobo during the early 1920s. In the mid-1920s, he managed a bookshop in Chicago, where he befriended one of the store's patrons, the young poet [[Kenneth Rexroth]]. Moore appears in Rexroth's memoir ''An Autobiographical Novel'' as the mad bohemian poet/bookseller/science fiction writer "Bard Major". Rexroth claimed that "Major" had been on the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Milwaukee and was expelled for Trotskyist deviationism, but the factual basis for this tale, if any, is obscure.

In 1929, Moore relocated to California, where he was to live for the rest of his life. Starting in 1937, he participated in the [[Federal Writers' Project]] of the WPA, where his friend Rexroth was an administrator in the San Francisco office. His [[picaresque]] first novel ''Breathe the Air Again'' was about the labor struggle in California during the 1920s. It had autobiographical elements and was widely and favorably reviewed. It was intended to be the first of a trilogy, but the remaining volumes were never published.

In the 1940 census, Moore is listed as living on Clifford Street in Los Angeles with his first wife, Violka. His occupation is listed as writer-novelist in the magazine publishing industry.

During the 1940s, Moore wrote book reviews, articles and short stories for a number of magazines and newspapers, including ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'', the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', ''Jewish Horizons'', and ''[[The Nation]]''. On May 3, 1943, in Los Angeles Moore was married to his second wife, Lorna Lenzi. He had seven children. Starting in 1950, he was book review editor of ''Frontier'', a West Coast political monthly similar in outlook to ''The Nation''.

In the early 1950s, he began writing regularly for ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction]]''. He was a friend of the magazine's California-based editors, [[Anthony Boucher]] and [[J. Francis McComas]], and soon became a popular favorite with the magazine's readers. Though he was never terribly prolific, his science fiction stories penned during the 1950s were entertaining and well crafted and were well received.

In the 1960s, his literary output diminished, and his last two novels were completed with the help of collaborators. His 1953 speculative "If the South had won the Civil War" novel ''Bring the Jubilee'' was brought back into print at the time of the Civil War centennial and found an appreciative new audience among Civil War buffs.

He published little during the 1960s, but published several stories in the mid-1970s.

After separating in June 1963, Moore and Lorna Lenzi were divorced on May 18, 1967.<ref>Commonwealth of Virginia-Report of Divorce or Annulment, State File Number 67-003414.</ref> Moore's third wife was the science fiction writer [[Raylyn Moore]] (née Crabbe; 1928–2005). The couple moved to [[Pacific Grove, California]], where he died in 1978.

==Partial Bibliography==

*''Breathe the Air Again'' (1942) non-genre
*''Greener Than You Think'' (1947)
*''[[Bring the Jubilee]]'' (1953)
*''Lot'' (1953), short story
*''Lot's Daughter'' (1954), short story
*''Adjustment'', (1957) short story
*''Cloud by Day'' (1956) non-genre
*''Joyleg'' (1962) (w/Avram Davidson)
*''Caduceus Wild'' (1978) (w/Robert Bradford)

==References==
{{Reflist |refs=

<ref name=SFE>
[http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/moore_ward "Moore, Ward"]. Modified October 28, 2014. ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' (sf-encyclopedia.com). Retrieved 2015-02-28. Entry by JC/PN, [[John Clute]] and [[Peter Nicholls (writer)|Peter Nicholls]].</ref>
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/moore/moore_bio.html Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040316072030/http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/moore/moore_bio.html |date=2004-03-16 }} at SciFi.com
* {{Gutenberg author |26345|Ward Moore }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ward Moore |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4324}}
* {{ISFDB name|1264}}
* {{LCAuth|n84221928|Ward Moore|6|}} (under "Moore, Ward, 1903–", previous page of browse report)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Ward}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American alternate history writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from New Jersey]]
[[Category:Novelists from Chicago]]
[[Category:People from Madison, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York City]]
[[Category:People from Pacific Grove, California]]
[[Category:DeWitt Clinton High School alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from California]]
[[Category:Writers from Morris County, New Jersey]]

David Hampton

2025-08-28T02:01:15Z

2600:1004:B330:B905:3124:6DA2:8DB9:E3C6: Needed definite article

{{Short description|American con-artist, imposter (1964–2003)}}
{{About|the con artist|the American football player|Dave Hampton|the British Olympic speed skater|David Hampton (speed skater)}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = David Hampton
| image_name = David Hampton.jpg
| image_caption = [[Mug shot]] of David Hampton taken after he was arrested for attempted [[burglary]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1964|4|28}}
| birth_place = [[Buffalo, New York]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|7|18|1964|4|28}}
| death_place = [[Mount Sinai Beth Israel|Beth Israel Medical Center]]<br />[[Manhattan]], [[New York City]], U.S.
| alias = David Poitier, Patrick Owens, Antonio Jones, David Hampton-Montilio
| motive =
| charge = [[Fraud]], fare-beating, credit-card theft, threats of violence, burglary, [[harassment]]
| conviction = Attempted [[burglary]]
| conviction_penalty = Twenty-one month [[prison]] term
| conviction_status = Deceased
| occupation =
| spouse =
| parents =
| children =
}}

'''David Hampton''' (April 28, 1964 – July 18, 2003) was an American [[confidence trick|con artist]] and robber who became famous in the 1980s after he convinced a group of wealthy [[Manhattan]]ites to give him money, food, and shelter under the pretense that he was the son of [[Sidney Poitier]]. David Hampton's story became the inspiration for a play titled ''[[Six Degrees of Separation (play)|Six Degrees of Separation]]''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Six Degrees of Separation {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/six-degrees-separation |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> which was adapted for [[Six Degrees of Separation (film)|a film]] of the same name. David Hampton died of [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]]-related complications in 2003.

==Background==
Hampton was born in [[Buffalo, New York]], and was the eldest son of an attorney. He moved to [[New York City]] (NYC) in 1981 and stumbled upon his now-famous ruse in 1983 when he and another man were attempting to gain entry into [[Studio 54]]. After the club denied Hampton and his partner entry, Hampton's partner decided to pose as [[Gregory Peck]]'s son while Hampton assumed the identity of [[Sidney Poitier]]'s son. They were ushered in as celebrities. Thereafter, Hampton adopted the persona of "David Poitier" to obtain free meals in restaurants. He also persuaded at least a dozen well-off people to give him shelter and money, including [[Melanie Griffith]], [[Gary Sinise]], [[Calvin Klein]], [[John Jay Iselin]], the president of [[WNET]]; [[Osborn Elliott]], the dean of the [[Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism]]; [[Leonard Bernstein]],<ref>{{cite web|first=Morgan|last=Falconer |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/north-america-travel/us-travel/new-york-city/john-guare-on-his-1990-play-six-degrees-of-separation-86knrhlftf5|title=John Guare on his 1990 play Six Degrees of Separation|date=January 9, 2010|publisher=[[The Times]]|access-date=July 19, 2018}}</ref> and a Manhattan [[urologist]]. Hampton used different lies to fool his victims; he convinced some that he was an acquaintance of their children, some that he had just missed a plane to [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]] with his luggage still on it, and some that his belongings had been stolen in a mugging.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1436727/David-Hampton.html|title=Obituary: David Hampton|date=2003-07-22|publisher=telegraph.co.uk|accessdate=3 March 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/21/theater/the-life-of-fakery-and-delusion-in-john-guare-s-six-degrees.html|title=The Life of Fakery and Delusion In John Guare's 'Six Degrees'|last=Witchel|first=Alex|date=1990-06-21|work=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=3 March 2012}}</ref>

In October 1983, Hampton was arrested and convicted of fraud and ordered to pay restitution of $4,469 to his various victims.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fowler |first=Glenn |date=1983-10-19 |title=SUSPECT IN HOAX IS ARRESTED HERE IN RENDEZVOUS |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/19/nyregion/suspect-in-hoax-is-arrested-here-in-rendezvous.html |access-date=2023-05-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After refusing to comply with these terms, he was sentenced to a term of 18 months to four years in prison.

==''Six Degrees of Separation''==
[[Playwright]] [[John Guare]] became interested in Hampton's story through his friendship with [[Inger McCabe Elliott]] and [[Osborn Elliott]], who had been outraged to find "David Poitier" in bed with another man the morning after they let him into their home. ''[[Six Degrees of Separation (play)|Six Degrees of Separation]]'' opened at the [[Lincoln Center]] in May 1990 and became a long-running success.<ref>{{cite news|title=Six Degrees of Impersonation|author=Kasindorf, Jeanie | magazine=New York Magazine |date=1991-03-25 |page=40 |accessdate=2011-08-03|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ugCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40}}
</ref>

Hampton attempted to parlay the play's success to his benefit, giving interviews to the press, [[gate-crashing]] a producer's party, and beginning a campaign of harassment against Guare that included phone calls and death threats. The harassment campaign prompted Guare to apply for a restraining order in April 1991. The restraining order was denied. In the fall of 1991, Hampton filed a $100 million lawsuit, claiming that the play had infringed on the copyright on his persona and his story. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Judge Dismisses Scam Artist's Suit Against Playwright |url=https://apnews.com/article/2d499cc55adb23432a01e9b4faacd027 |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref>

==Death==
David Hampton died of [[HIV/AIDS in the United States|AIDS]]-related complications while being treated for his illness at [[Mount Sinai Beth Israel|Beth Israel Medical Center]] (BIMC) in [[Manhattan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/80762-David-Hampton-Con-Man-Whose-Exploits-Inspired-Six-Degrees-Dead-at-39|title=David Hampton, Con-Man Whose Exploits Inspired Six Degrees, Dead at 38|last=Jones|first=Kenneth|date=2003-07-20|publisher=playbill.com|quote=David Hampton, the inspiration for the young black con-man who fools white New York society in John Guare's popular play, ''Six Degrees of Separation'', died at New York's Beth Israel Hospital, a friend told newspapers and wire services. Mr. Hampton was 39 and the cause of death was apparently complications from AIDS.|accessdate=3 March 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309230634/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/80762-David-Hampton-Con-Man-Whose-Exploits-Inspired-Six-Degrees-Dead-at-39|archivedate=9 March 2012}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Alan Conway]], a con-artist with a similar [[modus operandi]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C10FE395F0C7A8DDDA90994DB484D81 Suspect in Hoax is Arrested Here in Rendezvous] at nytimes.com (October 19, 1983)
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/20/nyregion/teen-ager-who-posed-as-poitier-son-guilty.html Teen-Ager Who Posed As Poitier 'Son' Guilty] at nytimes.com (November 20, 1983)
* [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30610FE355F0C728FDDAE0894D8494D81 Impersonator Wants To Portray Still Others, This Time, Onstage] at nytimes.com (July 31, 1990)
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/weekinreview/headliners-playing-himself.html HEADLINERS; Playing Himself] at nytimes.com (August 5, 1990)
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/19/nyregion/about-new-york-he-conned-the-society-crowd-but-died-alone.html About New York; He Conned the Society Crowd but Died Alone] at nytimes.com (July 19, 2003)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hampton, David}}
[[Category:1964 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American criminals]]
[[Category:AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Impostors]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Criminals from Buffalo, New York]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of New York (state)]]
[[Category:American confidence tricksters]]
[[Category:African-American LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people]]