Nicholas Moore
1918—1986
Nicholas Moore was the son of G.E. Moore, a Cambridge philosopher associated with analytic philosophy and, at times, members of the Bloomsbury group. Nicholas Moore began publishing poetry in the 1940s; in that decade alone he published seven collections and two pamphlets of poetry, including The Glass Tower: Selected Poems 1936-1943 (1944) and Recollections of the Gala: Selected Poems 1945-1948 (1950). In 1945, W.H. Auden awarded him the Patron Prize from Contemporary Poetry and in 1947 he received the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize from Poetry Magazine.
Once as prominent as other major poets of his day, such as Dylan Thomas, Moore became increasingly reclusive as the century wore on. Though he continued to write, by his death he was nearly forgotten as a poet. In 1990, Menard Press reissued Moore’s Spleen (first published 1973), a collection of 31 different translations of the same Charles Baudelaire poem. Shoestring Press published Selected Poems, including selections of Moore’s poetry from every decade of his life along with unpublished work in 2014.
Once as prominent as other major poets of his day, such as Dylan Thomas, Moore became increasingly reclusive as the century wore on. Though he continued to write, by his death he was nearly forgotten as a poet. In 1990, Menard Press reissued Moore’s Spleen (first published 1973), a collection of 31 different translations of the same Charles Baudelaire poem. Shoestring Press published Selected Poems, including selections of Moore’s poetry from every decade of his life along with unpublished work in 2014.