Editing C. L. Moore (section)

==Early career==
''The Vagabond'', a student-run magazine at [[Indiana University]], published three of her stories when she was a student there. The three short stories, all with a fantasy theme and all credited to "Catherine Moore", appeared in 1930–31.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/many-names-catherine-lucille-moore/|title=The Many Names of Catherine Lucille Moore|website=Kirkus Reviews}}</ref> Her first professional sales appeared in [[pulp magazines]] beginning in 1933.  Her decision to publish under the name "C. L. Moore" stemmed not from a desire to hide her gender, but to keep her employers at Fletcher Trust from knowing that she was working as a writer on the side.<ref name="chacal">{{Cite interview |title=C.L. Moore Talks to Chacal: A Conversation With the First Lady of Fantasy |interviewer=Byron Roark |url=https://archive.org/details/chacal-v-01n-01-1976-winter/ |type=Magazine |access-date=October 13, 2023 |work=Chacal |issue=1 |publisher=Nemedian Chronicles |year=1976 |pages=25-31}}</ref>

Her early work included two significant series in ''[[Weird Tales]]'', then edited by [[Farnsworth Wright]]. One features the rogue and adventurer [[Northwest Smith]] wandering through the [[Solar System]]; the other features the swordswoman/warrior [[Jirel of Joiry]], one of the first female protagonists in [[sword-and-sorcery]] fiction. Both series are sometimes named for their lead characters.<ref name=isfdb/> One of the Northwest Smith stories, "Nymph of Darkness" (''Fantasy Magazine'' (April 1935); expurgated version, ''Weird Tales'' (Dec 1939)) was written in collaboration with [[Forrest J Ackerman]].<ref>Forrest J. Ackerman, ''Ackermanthology: 65 Astoníshing, Rediscovered SF Shorts''. LA: General Publishing Co, 1997, pp. 255-270.</ref>

The most famous Northwest Smith story is "[[Shambleau]]", which was also Moore's first professional sale. It originally appeared in the November 1933 issue of ''Weird Tales'',<ref name=isfdb/> netting her $100, and later becoming a popular anthology reprint.[[File:Weird Tales October 1934.jpg|thumb|left|Cover of ''Weird Tales'', October 1934, featuring "The Black God's Kiss" by Moore (painting by [[Margaret Brundage]])]] Her most famous Jirel story is also the first one, "Black God's Kiss", which was the cover story in the October 1934 issue of ''Weird Tales'', subtitled "the weirdest story ever told" (see figure).<ref name=isfdb/> Moore's early stories were notable for their emphasis on the senses and emotions, which was unusual in [[genre fiction]] at the time.

Moore's work also appeared in ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' magazine throughout the 1940s. Several stories written for that magazine were later collected in her first published book, ''[[Judgment Night (collection)|Judgment Night]]'' (1952)<ref>{{cite book|author=Moore, C.L.|publisher=[[Gnome Press]]|date= 1952|title=Judgment Night}}</ref><ref name=isfdb/>{{efn|In 1951 Gnome had published ''Tomorrow and Tomorrow and the Fairy Chessmen'', the omnibus edition of two short novels by Moore & Kuttner as Lewis Padgett, which had been two-part serials in ''Astounding'' during 1947 and 1946. ''Judgment Night'' comprised five stories by Moore alone—none from the Northwest Smith and Jirel series, which Gnome collected in part one year later.<ref name=isfdb/>}} One of them, the novella "[[No Woman Born]]" (1944), was to be included in more than 10 different science fiction anthologies including ''The Best of C. L. Moore''.<ref>{{isfdb title |47580 |No Woman Born}} ('''ISFDB'''). Retrieved April 20, 2012.</ref>

Included in that collection were "Judgment Night" (first published in August and September 1943), the lush rendering of a future [[galactic empire]] with a sober meditation on the nature of power and its inevitable loss; "The Code" (July 1945), an homage to the classic [[Faust]] with modern theories and [[Lovecraftian horror|Lovecraftian]] dread; "Promised Land" (February 1950) and "Heir Apparent" (July 1950), both documenting the grim twisting that mankind must undergo in order to spread into the Solar System; and "Paradise Street" (September 1950), a futuristic take on the [[American Old West|Old West]] conflict between lone hunter and wilderness-taming settlers.