SOURCE: “A Veiled Look into Voicing the Unspeakable,” in Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1998, p. Q02.

In the following essay, Brady provides an overview of Moody's life, fiction, and literary career.

Who was that masked man? It might just be Rick Moody.

Seems he's been wearing a handkerchief or black veil over his face occasionally as part of his research into a freewheeling nonfiction book about a long-ago relative nicknamed Handkerchief Moody.

Handkerchief—who died in 1820—donned the veil for the last 10 or 15 years of his life out of remorse for having accidentally killed his best childhood friend with a firearm.

Moody has worn the veil at the Yaddo arts colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., much to the consternation of many of those around him.

The story of Handkerchief Moody is the latest work planned by the author of Garden State, The Ice Storm, The Ring of Brightest Angels...