Robert Loomis

Robert Loomis (born 1926) is an executive book editor at Random House, where he has worked since 1957. He has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." cite news | last = Arnold | first = Martin | title = Making books; Familiarity breeds content | work = The New York Times | date = 2001-04-12 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E0D91731F931A25757C0A9679C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/T/Tyler,%20Anne | accessdate = 2007-11-12 ]

Many of Loomis' authors have been with him for decades; most notably, Maya Angelou, who has never used another editor in her career, from her first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," published in 1969, to six autobiographies and over twenty books of poetry. His authors' loyalty to him and him to them is almost legendary. Loomis represents "the classic mold of the editor, which is to say, in the background. It’s not about him ... but about the genius of his writers."cite news | last = Smith | first = Dinitia | title = A career in letters, 50 years and counting | work = The New York Times | date = 2007-01-23 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/books/23loom.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin | accessdate = 2007-11-12 ] As Angelou has said, Loomis "knows what I hope to achieve in all my work. I don't know anybody as fierce, simply fierce, but he's as tender as he's tough."

Other notable authors who have been edited by Loomis include Calvin Trillin, Edmund Morris (who wrote "", the "controversial" [cite news | last = Lesley | first = Stahl | title = Morris: 'Reagan still a mystery' | work = CBS News.com | date = 2004-06-09 | url = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/09/60II/main622051.shtml | accessdate = 2007-11-13 ] book about US President Ronald Reagan), Shelby Foote, Jonathan Harr, and anchorman Jim Lehrer. He edited the Vietnam war epic, "A Bright Shining Lie", by Neil Sheehan, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and in 1998, the novel he edited for Pete Dexter, "Paris Trout", earned the National Book Award, "an unprecedented feat in editing." [cite journal | title = Where the written word reigns | journal = Duke Magazine | volume = 93 | issue = 3 | date = May-June 2007 | url = http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/050607/depupd.html | accessdate = 2007-11-13 ]

Loomis and author William Styron have known each other since they were both students at Duke University, where Loomis was Stryon's editor at Duke's student magazine. Loomis went on to edit all of Stryon's books except "Lie Down in Darkness," his first novel.

Loomis is married to Hilary Mills, who wrote a biography about Norman Mailer. He is a certified pilot.

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