The History TRUST digital archive Biography Moore - Ruth Moore (1903-1989) Father: Moore - Philip Moore (1871-1937) - Mother: Moore - Lovina Ethel (Joyce) Moore (1878-1956) Birth Date: 1903-07-21 Born Place: Gotts Island, Tremont, ME Siblings: Harvey Moore, Esther Moore (Trask), Louise Moore (Dow) Education: Gotts Island Elementary, Gotts Island, ME High School, Ellsworth, ME New York State Teachers College at Albany, Albany, NY Occupation: Private Secretary, Editor, New York, NY and Berkeley, CA Author 1943-1989 Childhood Home: Gotts Island, Tremont, ME Home: Bass Harbor, Tremont, ME Summer Home: Same Winter Home: Same Death Date: 1989 Death Place: Bar Harbor, ME Cemetery: Private internment Ruth Moore was born July 21, 1903 on Gotts Island, Maine, to Lovina (Joyce) and Philip Moore. She is a direct descendant of Daniel Gott, Jr., whose family settled the island in Tremont in 1789. Ruth's parents ran the island store and post office. Ruth attended the island elementary school and high school in Ellsworth, Maine. She graduated from the New York State College of Teachers in Albany (now State University of New York in Albany) in 1925 with a major in English and minor in economics. After teaching one year in Islip, New York, she decided teaching was not her calling and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City where she worked at various secretarial jobs. Our thanks to Southwest Harbor Public Library for sharing this data entry template for use by The History Trust (Feb 2021). Page 2 of 2 Her most important job at this point was as secretary to Mary White Ovington one of the co- founders of the National Association for the advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Ovington family had summered for many years on Gotts Island when Ruth was growing up. She also worked for the NAACP reporting directly to James Weldon Johnson, author of God's Trombones, and helping run a fund-raising campaign. At least twice while at the NAACP she carried out investigations in the south, one leading to freeing two young black boys charged with murder. From 1932-35 she was private secretary to Dr. John Hayes Holmes, a liberal minister. In 1936 she became private secretary and assistant to Alice Tisdale Hobart, author of Oil for the Lamps of China. This job took her to Washington, D.C. and later California, where she also managed a fruit ranch for the Hobart family. In 1940 she was introduced to Eleanor Mayo by her sister Esther Moore. Eleanor returned to California with Ruth and they lived together until Eleanor's death in 1981. After returning to New York Ruth worked at the Reader's Digest where, as assistant editor, she condensed other people's books. Her first novel The Weir was published in 1943; her second Spoonhandle, published in 1946, was made into a movie Deep Waters. The proceeds enabled Ruth and Eleanor to return to Maine, where they built their own home, with the help of Eleanor's father, in Bass Harbor. Ruth went on to publish 12 more novels and three books of poetry. She was often on the New York Times best seller list and was compared to William Faulkner. She died in 1989. After her death her family found a single sheet of paper in her typewriter with the words "I have seen horizons "