# Olive Moore

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{{distinguish|Oliver Moore (disambiguation){{!}}Oliver Moore}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
'''Miriam Constance Beaumont Vaughan''' (1901 – 1979), better known by her [pseudonym](/source/pseudonym) '''Olive Moore''', was a [modernist](/source/modernist) [English](/source/English_people) writer best known for three well-esteemed novels: ''Celestial Seraglio'' (1929), ''Spleen'' (1930), and ''Fugue'' (1932), and for the acerbic essay collection ''The Apple Is Bitten Again'' (1934). She also produced an essay on [D. H. Lawrence](/source/D._H._Lawrence), entitled ''Further Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine'', which was privately printed in 1933 and included in her essay collection. Her ''Collected Writings'' was published in 1992.<ref>Details of publication in Steven Moore, ''Dalkey Days: A Memoir'' (LA: Zerogram Press, 2023), 53-54.</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [Hereford](/source/Hereford), Moore was acquainted with the [Bloomsbury](/source/Bloomsbury) literary circles in London during her prolific years, and with the poet [Hugh MacDiarmid](/source/Hugh_MacDiarmid) and the radical London bookseller and publisher [Charles Lahr](/source/Charles_Lahr).<ref name="about">"About the Author," in Olive Moore, ''Spleen'' (1930; ed. 1996), pp. 129-33. Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, IL. {{ISBN|1-56478-148-8}}.</ref> She briefly worked for the [Daily Sketch](/source/Daily_Sketch). In the early 1920s, she married the sculptor [Sava Botzaris](/source/Sava_Botzaris) (1894-1965).  Otherwise, little is known about her life, beyond a brief autobiographic sketch in 1933. Moore claimed to be working on a novel entitled ''Amazon and Hero: The Drama of the Greek War for Independence'', which was never published.<ref name="about"/>

==Style==
Moore has been termed "a cross between [Virginia Woolf](/source/Virginia_Woolf) and [Djuna Barnes](/source/Djuna_Barnes), but with a more biting wit."<ref>Laura Doan and Jane Garrity (2006), ''Sapphic Modernities: Sexuality, Women, and National Culture'', p. 3. Palgrave, New York. {{ISBN|1-4039-6498-X}}.</ref> Her novels make free use of modernist techniques such as [stream of consciousness](/source/Stream_of_consciousness_(narrative_mode)) in their frank dealings with issues of [sexuality](/source/Human_sexuality) and [disability](/source/disability). Though considered a highly talented experimental writer, Moore's disappearance (and the rarity of published versions of her texts until the mid-1990s) has led to a relative critical neglect of her work, until recently.<ref>Renée Dickinson (2009), ''Female Embodiment and Subjectivity in the Modernist Novel: The Corporeum of Virginia Woolf and Olive Moore'', Routledge, London, {{ISBN|0-415-99383-0}}.</ref><ref>Jane Garrity (2003), ''Step-daughters of England: British Women Modernists and the National Imaginary'', p. 68. Palgrave, New York. {{ISBN|0-7190-6163-6}}</ref><ref>Jane Garrity (2013), "Olive Moore's Headless Woman," ''Modern Fiction Studies'' vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 288-316.</ref><ref>Wagner, Johanna M. "Unwomanly Intellect: Melancholy, Maternity, and Lesbianism in Olive Moore's ''Spleen''." ''Journal of Language, Literature and Culture'', vol. 64, no. 1, 2017, pp.42-61.[DOI:10.1080/20512856.2016.1221623](/source/DOI%3A10.1080%2F20512856.2016.1221623)</ref> ''Cleveland Review of Books'' reviewed ''Spleen,'' calling it "morbid and beautiful," after Moore's resurgence in the cultural zeitgeist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=To Be the Outsider: On Olive Moore's "Spleen"|url=https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/olive-moore-spleen-review|access-date=2021-11-15|website=Cleveland Review of Books|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Sources ==
<references/>

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Olive}}
Category:1901 births
Category:1970s deaths
Category:Year of death uncertain
Category:English essayists
Category:20th-century English novelists
Category:British women essayists
Category:People from Hereford
Category:Writers from Herefordshire
Category:20th-century British essayists
Category:English women non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century English women novelists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Olive Moore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Moore) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Moore?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.