Eva Moore considers herself lucky. The Montauk woman, brought up in Rome, New York, was encouraged by her sixth-grade teacher to become a writer. She had a different view, however, and at the age of 18 left town to find a publishing job in New York City. To facilitate her dream, she decided to first attend a secretarial school.
“New York City was a big culture shock for me,” she acknowledged, particularly the high cost of everything. “The first time I ventured out of the hotel where I lived I got terribly lost on the subway,” she said. Upon graduation from the school in 1962, she discovered that jobs were hard to come by. Her first interview was discouraging, as it required considerable typing, “my worst skill,” she said.
The next interview at Scholastic, Inc. provided “one of the luckiest days of my life. The company was doing book clubs then. I was hired as a secretary for the Lucky Book Club, and as a result I met Beatrice de Regniers, a writer of picture books for children.” Eva became her administrative assistant and wrote promotional copy, editorials and more. Three months later, Eva was given a raise and became an assistant editor. Within the year she had worked on original history and science books and then wrote a riddle book with illustrations, for which she got a $1,500 advance. With that money she was able to rent an east side penthouse apartment with her two roommates complete with maid service. “The riddle book sold like crazy and I got full royalties. It made things very nice for me.”
Other books followed for Eva, writing for a readership in grades two through five. Her works included biographies such as “Johnny Appleseed,” “George Washington Carver,” and a collection of at least seven more books with varied subject matter written under her name. “The Lucky Cook Book for Boys and Girls” for third-grade erstwhile chefs, “The Cookie Book,” “Hans Christian Anderson,” “Buddy, The First Seeing Eye Dog,” and Eva’s last book, “The Read and Learn Bible.” She had worked for 37 years, which Eva labels “the golden years of this kind of industry publishing.” She retired from her position in 1998, though she continued with Scholastic as a freelance writer and editor.
Prior to Eva’s retirement, she had investigated a time share at Gurney’s, and later spent a vacation at the Beach Plum motel while exploring possibilities of finding a house with land. In 1995 she bought her West Lake Drive home and three years later moved in full time with her two beloved cats.
Eva’s creative luck seems to have continued on the East End. In August 1998 she joined the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society hiking the “Right of Way” trail, which was the last segment of the 145-mile Paumanok Path whose completion the organization was celebrating. She found the group to be friendly and promptly became a member, heading the group’s Adopt-A-Trail program. This position was followed by another important one as vice president of hike scheduling. On May 1, 2007, Eva was voted president of the trails group and this May she was re-elected to its highest office. “It’s been a great experience,” Eva says and, as many members of the trails group also contend, “it has been the core of my social life.”
Yet with the title came a great deal of responsibility and required much creativity, something Eva is not unfamiliar with. Her efforts include unraveling problems with the organization’s e-mail system and working to expand membership of the 650-family member organization even more. “The challenge is also in keeping up with my home and yard as a single woman homeowner, as well as the trails work.”
To add to the challenge, three years ago Eva undertook a new project. She is editing a biography based on the letters of Grace Ravlin, an American artist who worked in Europe from 1906 to 1922 and died in 1956 at the age of 83. Eva is working with the artist’s 80-year-old grandniece, Alta Ann Parkin Morris, who has long been working on a book about her unusual grandaunt.
Apparently there is much mystery surrounding this independent woman who had traveled and worked extensively in Europe and Africa and wrote something like 125 letters and dozens of postcards. She had redacted the mailings before sending them to her sister, the mother of Eva’s client. “We recently discovered even more letters, uncensored ones, which have to be integrated,” says Eva with a note of excitement in her voice. She is clearly enjoying the project and hopes the book will be finished by the fall, “just in time for a celebration of Ravlin Day, in Grace’s hometown of Kaneville, Illinois, where the family had been prominent.”
But Eva Moore has another goal as well. “I would like to have a book reading presentation in the library in time to celebrate Women’s History month in March.” If we take a look at her “lucky history,” we think Eva will make her luck happen again. Then we in Montauk will count ourselves lucky as well.
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Classical guitarist William Feasley will be at the library on Saturday, May 30, to perform a program entitled, “Echoes of Goya.” The program combines images of Goya’s paintings with performances of a variety of Goya-inspired compositions. Don’t miss it!
Opera lovers will be pleased to hear about a Friends of the Library-sponsored discussion and slide show of “La Traviata,” by Professor Bill Thierfelder on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Do join him for this special program.
on May 27, 2009