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Oscar Moore (novelist)

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For the U.S. representative (1817–1885), see Oscar F. Moore. For the swing jazz guitarist (1916–1981), see Oscar Moore.

Oscar Moore (23 March 1960 – 12 September 1996)[1] was an English journalist, author and editor of Screen International.

Biography

Moore grew up in London and was educated at the independent The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School,[2] going on to read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge,[2] graduating in 1982. He worked as a journalist and critic, under his own name and various pseudonyms, to such magazines as Time Out, I-D, The Times, Punch, The Evening Standard, and The Fred Magazine (in which his novel was first serialised). He was editor of The Business of Film magazine during the mid-1980s, and joined UK film trade journal Screen International as deputy editor in 1990. He served as editor of Screen International from 1991 until September 1994 when he became editor-in-chief.[3] Moore himself has been described as "handsome, bright, witty, and gay,"[1] and worked occasionally as a male escort in addition to his magazine work. He lived with HIV for the last 13 years of his life, and from 1994 to 1996 wrote a regular column for The Guardian entitled "PWA (Person With AIDS)." Moore lost his sight owing to his HIV infection and died of AIDS-related illness in 1996 at the age of 36.[1][4][2]

Novel

A Matter of Life and Sex was published in 1991 originally under the pseudonym Alec F. Moran (an anagram for roman à clef).[5][6] It is an autobiographical novel recounting the coming of age of a gay man, Hugo Harvey, who engages in sex from a young age and later, during university, works at least part-time as a prostitute, contracting HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s before the advent of effective anti-HIV drugs. The novel describes the protagonist's relationships with his family (most significantly with his mother), his school friends, his casual sex partners, and with friends battling HIV/AIDS.

Legacy

A book collecting his "PWA" columns was published a month after his death.[7] A stage adaptation was produced in London in 2001.[8]

After his death, EMAP, the publishers of Screen International, created The Oscar Moore Foundation as a trust fund to support European screenwriters.[3]

Works

  • A Matter of Life and Sex, 1991, Dutton, New York. ISBN 0-525-93484-7.
  • PWA: Looking AIDS in the Face, 1996, Picador, London. ISBN 0-330-35193-1.

References

  1. ^ a b c Picardie, Justine (18 September 1996). "Obituary: Oscar Moore". The Independent. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  2. ^ a b c "Oscar Moore". Christopher Silvester. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  3. ^ a b Farrow, Boyd (20 September 1996). "Oscar Moore 1960-1996". Screen International. p. 12.
  4. ^ "Oscar Moore". islington.humap.site. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  5. ^ Moran, Alec F (1991). A Matter of Life and Sex, Paper Drum, London. ISBN 1-873736-00-2.
  6. ^ Moore, Oscar (1992). A Matter of Life and Sex, Dutton, New York. ISBN 0-525-93484-7.
  7. ^ Moore, Oscar (1996). PWA: Looking AIDS in the Face, Picador, London. ISBN 0-330-35193-1
  8. ^ Gardner, Lyn (2001). [1] "Theatre Review: PWA: The Diaries of Oscar Moore", The Guardian, London, 19 October 2001.
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