Gerald Moore (22 August 1924 – 27 December 2022) was an English independent scholar.
Gerald Moore | |
---|---|
Born | 22 August 1924 Chiswick, London, England |
Died | 27 December 2022 Sussex, England | (aged 98)
Education | Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Independent scholar |
Notable work | Modern Poetry from Africa (1963) |
Biography
editMoore was born in Chiswick, London, to Rex Moore, an exhibitions officer, and his wife, Norah (nee Sturdee), an actor, on 22 August 1924.[1] He went to Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire, and when he was 17 years old joined the Royal Navy, serving in the Atlantic and Arctic convoys during World War 2.[1] He later studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he earned a first-class degree in English.[1][2]
Moore taught at many universities, including the Sussex, Hong Kong, Makerere, Ife, Port Harcourt, Jos and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His last teaching post was at Trieste. He was primarily a scholar of contemporary African anglophone and francophone poetry. With Ulli Beier, he edited the influential Modern Poetry from Africa (1963), a comprehensive anthology, republished in 1984 as The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry.[3]
Personal life
editIn 1949, he married Joy Fisher, a librarian, with whom he had three children.[1] The couple divorced in 1973, and Moore subsequently married Miriam Garzitto.[1]
Moore lived in Worthing, Sussex,[4] before moving to Udine in Italy. He later returned to Sussex, in 2010, after his wife Miriam died. Moore died on 27 December 2022, at the age of 98.[1]
Major works
edit- Seven African Writers. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
- Modern Poetry from Africa (ed. with Ulli Beier). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963 (Penguin African Books). Revised as The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, 4th edition, 1999.
- African Literature and the Universities. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press (for Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1965.
- The Chosen Tongue: English Writing in the Tropical World. Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
- Wole Soyinka. London: Evans Brothers, 1971.
- Twelve African Writers. London: Hutchinson, 1980 (University Library for Africa).
As translator:
- Beti, Mongo. The Poor Christ of Bomba. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland, 2005.
- Beti, Mongo. Remember Ruben. Heinemann, London, 1980
- Tchicaya U Tam'si. Selected Poems. Heinemann, London, 1970
- Lopes, Henri. The Laughing Cry. Readers International, London, 1987
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f Bennett, Catherine (2 February 2023). "Gerald Moore obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
- ^ "Gerald Moore". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
- ^ Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, ed. (1998). The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. London and New York: Penguin.
- ^ Moore, Gerald (2002). "Senghor: Poet of Night". Research in African Literatures. 33 (4): 51–59. doi:10.1353/ral.2002.0117.