Roger Sherman Loomis (October 31, 1887 – October 11, 1966) was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature.

[edit] Biography

Roger Sherman Loomis
(NYT Photo)

Born to American parents in Yokohama, Japan, he was educated at The Hotchkiss School Lakeville, Connecticut. He earned a B.A. from Williams College in 1909, an M.A. from Harvard University in 1910, and was a Rhodes Scholar at New College,Oxford University in 1913. He held honorary degrees from Columbia, Williams, the University of Wales and the University of Rennes in France. During World War I, he edited an Army publication Atenshun 21. In 1930, Loomis attended the first International Arthurian Congress in Truro, Cornwall, where he and other scholars investigated Arthurian legends. Loomis was a member of the International Arthurian Society (president of American Branch, 1948 – 63), the Modern Language Association, the Mediaeval Academy of America (fellow; second vice-president, 1961 – 64), the Modern Humanities Research Association, and the American Humanist Association. He was an instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana from 1913 to 1918. He left Illinois for Columbia University, where he taught from 1919 until 1958. He was a member of Columbia's English faculty and held an emeritus position from 1958 until his death in 1966. In 1955-6, he was an Eastman Professor at Oxford University.

Loomis was the author of 10 scholarly books as well as numerous journal articles. From his early years Loomis wrote on influence of Celtic mythology on the Arthurian legend, especially in the Holy Grail myth. His book A Mirror of Chaucer's World, published in 1965 by Princeton, is a pictorial presentation of drawings, sculpture, paintings, and other materials related to Geoffrey Chaucer and his age. His most notable book Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes, published by Columbia University in 1949 won the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America.

Roger Sherman Loomis was the son of Henry Loomis and Jane Herring Greene, the great nephew of William Maxwell Evarts and the great-great grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman. He married Laura Alandis Hibbard Loomis (1883-1960), who he collaborated with on much of his research and writing efforts.

[edit] Works

• Illustrations of Medieval Romance On Tiles From Chertsey Abbey (1916)
• Freshman Readings (1925)
• Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (1927)
• The Art of Writing Prose (1930) with Mabel Louise Robinson, Helen Hull and Paul Cavanaugh
• Models for Writing Prose (1931)
• The Romance of Tristram and Ysolt (1931) translator
• Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (1938) with Laura Hibbard Loomis
• Introduction to Medieval Literature, Chiefly in England. Reading List and Bibliography (1939)
• Representative Medieval And Tudor Plays (1942) editor with Henry W. Wells
• The Fight for Freedom: College Reading in Wartime (1943) with Gabriel M. Liegey
• Modern English Readings (1945) editor with Donald Lemen Clark
• Medieval English Verse and Prose (1948) with Rudolph Willard
• Arthurian Tradition And Chretien De Troyes (1949)
• Wales and the Arthurian Legend (1956)
• Medieval Romances (1957) editor with Laura Hibbard Loomis
• Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, A Collaborative History (1959) editor
• The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (1963)
• The Development of Arthurian Romance (1963)
• A Mirror of Chaucer's World (1965)
• The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles: Especially Those in Great Britain and France (1973) expansion of Robert Huntington Fletcher's 1906 book
• Lanzelet (2005) translator Thomas Kerth, notes by Loomis and Kenneth G. T. Webster

[edit] References

• Studies In Medieval Literature: A Memorial Collection of Essays (1970)
• Special to The New York Times."ROGER S. LOOMIS OF COLUMBIA DIES :An Authority on King Arthur and His Knights Was 78 Honored by Medievalists Investigated Legends. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 12 Oct. 1966,43-43. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005). ProQuest. Johns Hopkins University Libraries. 5 Jan. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>

[edit] External links

• The origins of the Holy Grail according to Roger Sherman Loomis