Susanna Moore Papers

Moore, Susanna (1945)

Susanna Moore is an American novelist. Born in Pennsylvania on December 9, 1945, Susanna Moore soon moved to Hawaii with her family. At seventeen, she left Hawaii for the mainland, where she lived in New York and Los Angeles, working as a model and script reader. In 1983, she published her first novel, My Old Sweetheart , which won the PEN Hemingway Citation and the Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Whiteness of Bones (1989) and Sleeping Beauties (1993) followed, forming a loose trilogy of coming-of-age novels set in Hawaii. After spending two years with NYPD homicide detectives, Moore dramatically departed from her earlier work with In the Cut (1995), a thriller set in New York. Later works explore nineteenth-century British India (One Last Look , 2004) and the world of women's prisons (The Big Girls , 2007), based in part on her time spent teaching in detention centers. She also teaches creative writing at Princeton University. The American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded her a Prize for Literary Achievement in 1999.

The papers consist of drafts of novels and nonfiction books, correspondence with writers and artists, teaching materials from her time spent teaching incarcerated writers and Princeton undergraduates, photographs, and audiovisual material.

Regular accruals from the author are expected.

Gift of Susanna Moore, 2010-2023 (AM 2010-143, 2012-97, 2013-26, 2013-34, 2013-106, 2014-19, 2015-91, 2016-17, 2016-49, 2016-59, 2016-69, 2016-90, 2016-103, 2017-11, 2017-65, AM 2017-80, AM 2018-43, AM 2019-19, AM 2019-59, AM 2019-67, AM 2020-2, AM 2021-29, AM 2022-019, AM 2022-123, AM 2023-068, 2024-036).

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This collection contains digital files, which may require specific software or hardware for access. Refer to our Tips on Accessing Born-Digital Content for information on how to render these file formats.

This collection was processed by Alyssa Meyers in 2011. Finding aid written by Alyssa Meyers in 2011. Finding aid updated periodically with new accessions by Kelly Bolding in 2015-2022. 2023 addition incorporated into the collection by Amy C. Vo in 2023.

Some of the born-digital materials in this collection have been processed according to Princeton University Library's Born-Digital Processing Workflows. For more information on the workflow, please read our full Born-Digital Processing Information Note. Other born-digital materials on floppy disks and optical media are unprocessed.

No materials were separated from the collection during 2015-2023 processing.

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Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Susanna Moore Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Date

2011

Creator

Moore, Susanna (1945)

Subject

American fiction -- 20th century

Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence

Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Manuscripts

Prisoners -- Education -- United States

Prisoners as authors -- United States

Place

Hawaii -- Fiction

Language

English

Form

Manuscripts

photographs