Ward Moore’s most famous novel opens with a wonderful paragraph of just two sentences:




“Although I am writing this in the year 1877, I was not here until 1921. Neither the dates nor the tenses are error—let me explain:”

--Chapter 1. Life in the Twenty-Six States



That opening chapter is in fact a whirlwind of speculative alternate history wonder. It details a history of the Civil War where the South won and the North grew embittered, complaining even seventy years later. In the North the people tend to have indenture themselves to get ahead (although this isn’t fully explained why since it isn’t to go by ship to a different country). But it is apparently extremely difficult to get ahead.



The narrator is a clumsy farmhand for his family although he does come to a love of writing. Trackless locomotives, minibles (small dirigibles, it seems), and the post-office lottery sparkle in this strange new America which is plagued by poverty, indentured and prison labor, and gangs. The telegraph is still the main mode of communication. America’s new future (of the past) creates ripples of changes throughout the world where France still appears to carry out Napoleonic wars.



He briefly comes across a slave pursued by his master and he laments not jerking the horseman’s reins to give the slave a chance to escape. This becomes a key thematic moment about the ability to change the future.



Two women manage to train our narrator into a professorial writer who charts the course of Civil War. When he gets stuck, they help get back in the saddle by the invention of a new time machine with a chance to witness the past.



The novel dives into discussions of polygamous sexuality and gender and racial equality—possibly one of the first in the genre to do so. It is perhaps too didactic about these issues, however. Compare this to his story “Lot” which leaves much to readers to discover for themselves.



An early version first of the tale appeared in a presumably shorter form in F&SF, edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas. This version was later reprinted by Frank D. McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, and Harry Turtledove—one billed as The Best Alternate History Stories of the Twentieth Century. Dozens of critics and writers have recommended the novel version. Gollancz reprinted it as part of their SF Masterworks series. David Pringle included it in his Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. And it is discussed in various critical anthologies.



Nonetheless, the F&SF novella version, edited by Boucher and McComas, may be the best version though I haven’t laid my hands on a copy to investigate. The novel has discursive and abstract passages that bog the middle part of the novel down:



“I noticed however that he treated the consul no differently, either in politeness or honesty, from his other patrons, and by this time I knew Tyss well enough to attribute this courtesy not to the self-interest of a tradesman but to that compassion which he suppressed so sternly under the contradictions of his nature.”



and



“The new Catty was no more than the old was disingenuous or coquettish. She was simply mature, dignified, self-contained and just a trifle amusedly aloof. Also she was very busy. She did not pretend to any interest in other men; at the same time she had clearly outgrown her childish dependence on me. She refused any competition with Barbara. When I sought her out she was there, but she made no attempt to call me to her.”



Being trapped in a narrator’s semi-rambling thoughts for too long didn’t seriously mar his short fiction, but here it quagmired the narrative until the narrator was able to climb into a time machine. Thank God for time machines.



One might guess that he had planned to expand on these, or maybe the novel was too long to publish in 1953 that he compressed them without little grace. The middle has aspects to recommend it, but an expansion may not have improved the speculative aspects, so a ruthless excision (e.g. the novella) may be the best choice for aesthetic readers.



That said, the novel remains an established, influential classic, worth discovering for yourself. The intriguing ending, for instance, leaves the reader to wonder which future the narrator lands in. Also, the novel demonstrates how a small action (or inaction) can lead to devastating or beneficial effects. The novel’s merits and charms may overwhelm infelicities for some. I will await a cheap price on the Turtledove ebook before investigating the novella.



It is time someone collected his best short fiction—perhaps even this novella—into a book. Moore’s stories are difficult to chase down.




The Author
Ward Moore won no awards or nominations yet was respected by writers. Despite the appearance in several best-of anthologies, he seems to have never had a collection. Apparently, he appears as a character in books by Kenneth Rexroth, himself, and Jean Ariss. He is also well known as the author of the critically acclaimed stories, "Lot" and "Lot’s Daughter", which I discussed here.

Being the Jubilee had a interesting premise, but it just fell flat for me. The grammatical errors didn't bother me, it was the some areas of this book just were confusing.

“A country defeated in a bitter war and divested of half its territory loses its drive and spirit and suffers a shock which is communicated to all its people.“ pretty well sums up this alternate history being re-published with minor grammatical corrections. Apocalyptic in its mood, the story makes us grateful for what the United States has accomplished.