Ted Mooney, "who opened his first book, in 1981, with a scene of dolphin-human sex, and who proceeded to write three other offbeat, inventive novels at roughly 10-year intervals," died March 25, the New York Times reported. He was 70. An editor at Art in America magazine from 1977 to 2008, he was "known for his steady hand whether working with established art critics or first-time writers. His novels, though, showed a different side, one partial to outlandish yarns that were also literate examinations of a disjointed age."
Easy Travel to Other Planets, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and was a best first novel finalist for the 1982 American Book Award (now National Book Award), was followed by novels Traffic and Laughter (1990), Singing into the Piano (1998), and The Same River Twice (2010).
In a 1990 interview with Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory now in the archives of San Diego State University, Mooney was asked if the characters in his novels ever surprised him. "There is not a single day in which I am not surprised to the point of befuddlement by what they do," he replied. "That's the pleasure. Reacting to the befuddlement, straightening it out, is the responsibility."
Mooney moved to Manhattan in the early 1970s and was hired in 1977 by Art in America, where he eventually became a senior editor. Elizabeth Baker, the editor there at the time, recalled: "Ted was a skilled editor from the outset. He was young, with no track record, but his job application included a photocopy of an article we'd already published, on which he'd red-penciled some constructive editorial changes. The job was his."
"Over the decades, Ted's literary career never undercut the care and resourcefulness he poured into his editorial activities," Baker added. "He was thorough and meticulous, while scrupulously maintaining the tone and style of each writer. He worked with established writers whose work he barely touched, as well as beginners he taught how to write."
A memorial service to celebrate Mooney's life of will take place June 22 at 6 p.m. at the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City. Please RSVP to Joan at TedMemorialService@gmail.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mooney's name to the New York Institute for the Humanities.