Ward Moore Books In Order

Greener Than You Think

Ward Moore’s novel, Greener Than You Think 1947, is his first to be aimed at a science fiction audience. It describes what happens when a superfertilizer, marketed by an opportunistic businessman, causes grass to grow uncontrollably, eventually engulfing the entire world. All attempts to stop the growth including the use of an atomic bomb are to no avail, and the man who started it all, Albert Weener, who has in the course of the novel become quite wealthy and influential, cannot even escape on his yacht: the grass pushes up through the boards in the boat’s deck. When the book first appeared, a critic writing in the New York Times Book Review admitted that this is ‘a perfectly wonderful idea for a work of fantasy,’ but criticized Moore for being ‘totally undisciplined…
with words’ and engaging in ‘literary exhibitionism.’ The review notes, however, that Greener Than You Think is ‘a must for fantasy fans.’ J. G. Ballard praised the novel’s ‘satirical lilt,’ and Robert Bloch found it significant enough to include in his discussion of books illustrating the man against nature theme in an essay included in Basil Davenport’s The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism 1959.

Bring the Jubilee

‘ WARD MOORE IS ONE OF THE BEST AMERICAN WRITERS.’
Ray Bradbury

The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. struggled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression.

The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the nation remained one of horse drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armies. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pursuit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and violence.

Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities…
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‘The Civil War has been often rethought, most effectively in Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee.’
Donald E. Westlake
The New York Times