August 10 is the birthday of Ward Moore (1903-1978). Moore isn’t well remebered today. He only wroote or co-wrote four novels, two of them collaborations. One, Bring the Jubilee, is highly regarded as one of the first, and some say one of the best, alternate history novels in which the South won the Civil War.  I have no opinion on it since I haven’t read it.

He never had a collection, which is a shame, because he was one of those writers who, while not being a top-tier author, could write a solid story. The ISFDB lists twenty-eight piecies of short fiction by him, the most recent in 2024 in Last Dangerous Visions. A collection of all his short fiction sounds like a project for NESFA.

But I digress.

Aside from Bring the Jubilee, Ward Moore is best known as the author of “Lot” and its less well-known sequel, “Lot’s Daughter”.

“Lot” was published in the May 1953 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I’m not sure this story could be published today, as you’ll see below.

It’s a post-apocalypic riff on the Biblical story of Lot. Continue reading →