Before Barbara Moon stopped writing and became a legendary editor “she
wrote – as all good writers do – from the edges of her nerves, under
stress, weighted down with anxiety about trapping the elusive phrase or
image that encapsulated the essence of a subject or a personality,”
eulogizes Sandra Martin, in her Globe and Mail obituary.

In
her own effort to trap the essence of Moon, Martin sought memories from
Peter Newman (he called Moon Canada’s Joan Didion); John Macfarlane
(Moon was a perfectionist with a “brittle eye and a brittle
personality” whose work was spectacular); and Anne Collins (“outsized
in character and glamour, elegant, ferocious, witty”).

“My, she
could be ferocious,” remembers Martin — especially to inexperienced
writers who “often felt like a tasty fly stuck in her editorial web. “

A Mastheadonline story is here. Here is a Canadianmags blog post.