John Robert Moore was born in Pueblo, Colorado on July 27, 1890. He attended the University of Missouri where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1910 and his Master of Arts in 1914. In 1917, Moore received his Ph.D. from Harvard. He spent time teaching at the University of Wisconsin, University of Delaware, University of Michigan, and University of Washington. In 1922, Moore came to Indiana University as an Associate Professor of English and was promoted to Professor in 1929. He was awarded the title Distinguished Service Professor of English in 1956 and was granted the title Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English upon his retirement from IU in 1961. After leaving IU, he continued to teach at several universities including Southwestern University and the University of Texas. Over the course of his career, Moore taught in thirteen states, Canada, and England.

Moore's research interests included English dramatic history, the poetry and fiction of Sir Walter Scott, the plays of Shakespeare, and early English ballads. Beginning in the early 1930s, Moore became internationally known as one of the leading scholars of Augustan literature and history and the works of Daniel Defoe. He published e8 books and over 150 articles, many of which were about Defoe. Moore is credited with establishing the Defoe canon with his discovery that the book A General History of the Pyrates, attributed to a Captain Charles Johnson, was actually the work of Defoe. During the following decades, he added nearly 150 new titles to standard Defoe bibliographies and rejected as spurious some 30 titles included in such works. However, Moore's work was controversial among Defoe scholars, and Defoe has not been proven to be the author of A General History of the Pyrates and other works.

In addition to his teaching and scholarly work, Moore published a considerable amount of poetry, some of it collected and reissued in Symphonies and Songs. He lectured widely in the United States and abroad. Moore was a member of many scholarly societies including the Royal Academy, the Oxford Bibliographical Society, and the London Bibliographical Society. He was the first Senior Fellow of the Henry E. Huntington Library.

Moore married Alice Beer on August 26, 1924. The couple had three children: John Jr., Joyce, and Katherine. Moore died on July 18, 1973.

Biographical note from: Bloomington Faculty Council Circular B18-75, Memorial Resolution on the Death of John Robert Moore.