Twenty years after her death, Catherine Lucille Moore (19U-1987)remains one of the most influential female fantasy authors of all time. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Moore published her first story in Weird Tales in 1933, where it met with immediate success and earned praise from contemporaries such as H. P. Love-craft. In a time when female authors were still marginalized and practically unheard of in genre fiction, Catherine hid her gender by publishing under the name C. L. Moore. She proceeded to write high-profile stories for Weird Tales mA Astounding for the next decade, earning particular acclaim for her characters Jirel of Joiry, the first strong female protagonist in the sword and sorcery genre, and daring spaceman Northwest Smith. Moore met science fiction author Henry Kuttner in 1936 when he wrote her a fan letter, mistakenly believing her to be a man, and in 1940the two were married. Together the couple collaborated on numerous stories and scripts for television shows under their own names and at least 17 pseudonyms, of which Lewis Padgett andKeith Hammond are the most recognized.