[Next Project] Noel Loomis - Short Fiction

[Jon Erdman]

Going with Noel Loomis instead of Noel M. Loomis as Gutenberg calls him because the actual byline of every story currently on gutenberg is simply "Noel Loomis".

I have created a research spreadsheet here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HNrcS75tcLsJTt-1X88_HzI1qLS0lnfwbFKCB265qzE/edit?gid=0#gid=0

I believe the spreadsheet is complete and everything on it is science fiction. He also wrote Westerns but the westerns seem to be full novels and none will be PD for decades anyway.

Repo here:

https://github.com/homestar92/noel-loomis_short-fiction

His stories are post-1930 so they're PD by way of non-renewal. So only the nine stories on gutenberg can be included.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, great work! I've made a copy here, please edit that copy from now
on:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14HxrY0foN5rCnlbGYQiC3pwjE7K44qJJ4bMcV81tj-E/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Lukas will manage with Vince reviewing.

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[Jon Erdman]

I did discover a gap in my research just within the last hour or two. He wrote a bunch of Westerns too. I had thought all of his Western writing was novels so I didn't include those in the Short Fiction spreadsheet, but there is some short fiction among his corpus of westerns too. I'll add those to the spreadsheet shortly, but I'm curious: should we maybe rename the production to "Short Science Fiction" and follow the precedent of the Asimov collection, and that way we aren't mixing westerns and sci-fi into the same omnibus when/if some of the short western stories hit the PD? Or are we OK with them being mixed together when/if that happens and should leave it as just "Short Fiction"? I figure the best time to sort that out is now before I've actually done any work.

It doesn't change the scope of what can be worked on today because everything is post-1930, so for at least another decade or more, the available corpus is strictly limited to whatever Gutenberg clears for us.

[Vince]

Asimov’s corpus (and Wodehouse’s, as another example) is quite a bit larger than Loomis’s. :) We kept all of Poe’s short fiction together regardless of type; given the size, I don’t see a reason to do otherwise here, unless Alex feels differently.

[Alex Cabal]

Update the spreadsheet first and add a column for genre to the right so
we can take a look.

On 6/24/26 6:40 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> I did discover a gap in my research just within the last hour or two. He
> wrote a bunch of Westerns too. I had thought all of his Western writing
> was novels so I didn't include those in the Short Fiction spreadsheet,
> but there is some short fiction among his corpus of westerns too. I'll
> add those to the spreadsheet shortly, but I'm curious: should we maybe
> rename the production to "Short Science Fiction" and follow the
> precedent of the Asimov collection, and that way we aren't mixing
> westerns and sci-fi into the same omnibus when/if some of the short
> western stories hit the PD? Or are we OK with them being mixed together
> when/if that happens and should leave it as just "Short Fiction"? I
> figure the best time to sort that out is now before I've actually done
> any work.
>
> It doesn't change the scope of what can be worked on today because
> everything is post-1930, so for at least another decade or more, the
> available corpus is strictly limited to whatever Gutenberg clears for us.
>
> On Wednesday, June 24, 2026 at 7:21:45 PM UTC-4 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK, great work! I've made a copy here, please edit that copy from now
> on:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/14HxrY0foN5rCnlbGYQiC3pwjE7K44qJJ4bMcV81tj-E/edit?gid=0#gid=0

> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/14HxrY0foN5rCnlbGYQiC3pwjE7K44qJJ4bMcV81tj-E/edit?gid=0#gid=0>

>
> Lukas will manage with Vince reviewing.
>
> On 6/24/26 10:42 AM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> > Going with Noel Loomis instead of Noel M. Loomis as Gutenberg
> calls him
> > because the actual byline of every story currently on gutenberg is
> > simply "Noel Loomis".
> >
> > I have created a research spreadsheet here:

> > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ <https://docs.google.com/
> spreadsheets/>

> > d/1HNrcS75tcLsJTt-1X88_HzI1qLS0lnfwbFKCB265qzE/edit?gid=0#gid=0
> >
> > I believe the spreadsheet is complete and everything on it is
> science
> > fiction. He also wrote Westerns but the westerns seem to be full
> novels
> > and none will be PD for decades anyway.
> >
> > Repo here:

> > https://github.com/homestar92/noel-loomis_short-fiction <https://
> github.com/homestar92/noel-loomis_short-fiction>

> >
> > His stories are post-1930 so they're PD by way of non-renewal. So
> only
> > the nine stories on gutenberg can be included.
> >
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[Jon Erdman]

I had already added the stories, but I added a genre column too.

Of the 50 short stories that I was able to find mentioned online, 37 are sci-fi, 12 are westerns, and there's one that is Adventure, but the ToC of the magazine that single Adventure story appeared in listed it as "A Fact Story" so it might not even be fiction. I skimmed it and it sure reads like fiction, and the main character is never named so it's kind of nebulous.

Since that one singular Adventure story is the first new one that will hit PD (barring any Rule 6 clearances on Gutenberg in the meantime) and will be homeless if we split the omnibus by genre, I think I'm back to being in the camp of keeping it all together but that's obviously your call to make. For the time being, it's largely just considerations for the future anyway since the Gutenberg stories are the only ones we have to work with and they're all the same genre.