Noel Loomis (April 3, 1905 – September 7, 1969) was a writer, principally of western, mystery and science-fiction, in the middle of the 20th century. Born and raised in the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

, he was sufficiently familiar with that territory to write a useful history of the

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

company. Access to this collection may be available through a local public library.

Personal life

Noel Loomis was born Noel Miller Loomis on April 3, 1905, in the

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as th ...

town of Wakita, in the

Cherokee Strip The Cherokee Outlet, or Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma in the United States. It was a 60-mile-wide (97 km) parcel of land south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border between 96 and 100°W. The Cherokee Outlet wa ...

, and raised in Texico, in the

New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México ...

, and in the

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

town of Slaton. In later life he lived in Decanso, in the San Diego, California, Back Country from 1956. He married Dorothy Moore Green, who was also a writer, in 1945. There is evidence that he had a first wife named Johnie or Jonie, who was the mother of his children. Noel Loomis, Ward 10, Minneapolis, Minneapolis City, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 89–288, sheet 18A, family 438, NARA digital publication of T627, roll 1987.

Career and honors

* 1921 Attended Clarendon College * 1929–1979 Freelance writer * 1930 Attended

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

* 1953 National survey of writers' incomes and terms in writers' contracts * 1954–1955 President of ''Western Writers of America'' * 1955–1956 President of Hulburd Grove Improvement Association * 1958

Spur Award Spur Awards are literary prizes awarded annually by the Western Writers of America (WWA). The purpose of the Spur Awards is to honor writers for distinguished writing about the American West. The Spur awards began in 1953, the same year the WWA wa ...

Novel: ''

Short Cut to Red River ''Short Cut to Red River'' is a 1958 western novel by Noel Loomis that won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel This is a list of the works of fiction which have won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel: * 1953 - Novel: "Lawman" by Wayne D. Ove ...

'' by Noel Loomis (Macmillan), title=Spur Awards « Western Writers * 1958–1969 Instructor in English,

San Diego State College San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

, San Diego, California * 1959 Spur Award Short Story: ''Grandfather Out of the Past'' by Noel Loomis (Frontiers West) * 1963–1969 Director of

Writers Workshop Writers Workshop is a Kolkata-based literary publisher founded by the Indian poet and scholar Purushottama Lal in 1958. It has published many new Indian authors of post-independence urban literature. Many of these authors later became widely kn ...

American Academy of Political and Social Science The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) was founded in 1889 to promote progress in the social sciences. Sparked by Professor Edmund J. James and drawing from members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmo ...

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's stated mission is ...

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

He also worked variously as a printer, newspaperman and editor.

Writings

Selected works. Satellite science fiction 195810

Fiction

* ''Murder Goes to Press'' (1937) * ''City of Glass'' (1942, ''

Startling Stories ''Startling Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', S ...

'', exp. 1955 by

Columbia Publications Columbia Publications was an American publisher of pulp magazines featuring the genres of science fiction, westerns, detective stories, romance, and sports fiction. The company published such writers as Isaac Asimov, Louis L'Amour, Arthur C. Clar ...

) * ''Iron Men'' (1945,(1945, ''Startling Stories'') * ''Electron Eat Electron'' (1946, ''

Planet Stories ''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. ...

'') * ''Turnover Time'' (1949, ''Startling Stories'') * ''Rim of the Caprock'' (1952) * ''The Buscadero'' (1953) * ''We Breathe For You'' (1953, ''Startling Stories'') * ''The Ultimate Planet'' (1949, ''

Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...

'') * ''The Man With the Absolute Motion'' (1955, as by Silas Water) * ''Short Cut to Red River'' (1958) * ''Grandfather Out of the Past'' (1959)

Non-fiction

* ''Pedro Vial and the Roads to Santa Fe'', a description of

Pedro Vial Pedro Vial, or Pierre Vial (c. 1746 in Lyon, France – October 1814 in Santa Fe, New Mexico), was a French explorer and frontiersman who lived among the Comanche and Wichita Indians for many years. He later worked for the Spanish government as ...

's exploratory expeditions (1967) (with Abraham P Nasatir) * ''The Texan Santa Fe Pioneers'' (1958) * ''Wells Fargo'', a history of the

company (1968)

Media work

* ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on U ...

'' TV series, various episodes * '' Have Gun, Will Travel'' TV series, various episodes * ''

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

'' (TV series), 1956 episode: "Mustang Trail" * '' Johnny Concho'' (film directed by Don McGuire), United Artists, 1956 :This production, starring

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

and other well-known actors, by accounts an unusual production, has to date (2014) never been released on any of the usual portable media, e.g. VHS or DVD.

Other

Editing

''Linecasting Operator-Machinist''
Harding, Edwin B.; Noel M. Loomis, ed.

Teaching

* 1958–1969 Assistant professor of English at

in Southern California

References

External links

* * * * ''

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...

* ''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loomis, Noel 1905 births 1969 deaths American frontier Western (genre) writers American mystery writers American science fiction writers Historians of the American West Writing teachers American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Pulp fiction writers News editors American printers 20th-century American historians 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers People from Grant County, Oklahoma People from Curry County, New Mexico People from Slaton, Texas 20th-century American non-fiction writers