Lilian Moore (1909-2004) Biography

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for SATA sketch: Born March 17, 1909, in New York, NY; died July 20, 2004, in Seattle, WA. Educator, editor, and author. Moore, a popular children's books author, was also noted for her work with Scholastic, Inc., in creating a line of affordable paper backs for children and for helping to found the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Graduating from Hunter College in 1930 with a B.A., she became a part-time elementary school teacher in New York City after an unsuccessful search for employment at the college level. The Depression was a hard time for teachers, and Moore also edited the Unemployed Teacher, a publication of the Unemployed Teachers Council, during these years. Discovering she had a talent for teaching children to read, she became a specialist in this area and worked for the New York City Bureau of Educational Research from 1937 to 1950. By the 1940s, she was publishing her own children's books, beginning with A Child's First Picture Dictionary (1946). What followed was a series of picture books and poetry collections for children, including Wobbly Wheels (1956), Bear Trouble (1960), I Feel the Same Way (1967), Sam's Place: Poems from the Country (1973), Something New Begins (1982), I Never Did that Before (1995), and Mural on Second Avenue, and Other City Poems (2004). Some of these, including Bear Trouble, Too Many Bozos, A Pickle for a Nickel, and Tony the Pony, were adapted as short films. From 1957 to 1967, Moore worked as an editor for Scholastic. While there, she proposed that the publisher release books in paperback so that they would be affordable to more children's families. She consequently became editor of the Arrow Book Club and Lucky Book Club for children. Her stepson's involvement in the civil rights movement led her involvement in founding the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which advocated the elimination of racial stereotypes in children's literature. Many of Moore's own books were bestsellers in America, and her "Little Raccoon" series of books also sold over 375,000 copies in Russia. A number of her works were included on selected lists, such as the New York Times Best Books of the Year and the Child Study Association Children's Books of the Year, and in 1985 she was presented with the National Council of Teachers of English Award for excellence in children's poetry.