John L. Moore

A veteran newspaperman, Pennsylvania author John L. Moore employs a journalist’s eye for detail and ear for quotes in order to write about long-dead people in a lively way. He bases his non-fiction books on 18th and 19th century letters, journals, memoirs and transcripts of official proceedings such as interrogations, depositions and treaties. The eight books in Moore’s Frontier Pennsylvania Series and five books in his Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series reflect a half century of research and travel to historic sites throughout Pennsylvania. They are published by Sunbury Press Inc., which is headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Moore has participated in archaeological excavations of several Native American sites. These include the Village of Nain, Bethlehem, Pa.; the City Island project in Harrisburg, Pa., conducted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission during the 1990s; and a Bloomsburg University dig in 1999 at a Native American site near Nescopeck, Pa. He also took part in a 1963 excavation conducted by the New Jersey State Museum along the Delaware River north of Worthington State Forest. The eight titles in the Frontier Pennsylvania Series are: • Bows, Bullets, and Bears • Cannons, Cattle, and Campfires • Forts, Forests, and Flintlocks • Pioneers, Prisoners, and Peace Pipes • Rivers, Raiders, and Renegades • Traders, Travelers, and Tomahawks • Settlers, Soldiers, and Scalps • Warriors, Wampum, and Wolves The five books in the Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series tell about Pennsylvanians caught up in the American Revolutionary War. The books are: • Tories. Terror, and Tea • Scorched Earth: General Sullivan and the Senecas • 1780: Year of Revenge • Against the Ice: The Story of December 1776 • Murder at Killbuck Island Moore's titles also include a book of family stories, Skunks, Nuts and Other Stories. Moore’s 46-year career in journalism included stints as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal; as a Harrisburg, Pa.-based legislative correspondent for Ottaway News Service; as managing editor of The Sentinel at Lewistown; as editorial page editor and managing editor at The Daily Item in Sunbury; and as editor of the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal in Bethlehem. He and his wife, Jane, have lived in Northumberland, Pa., since 1981.