Charles Battell Loomis

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1861, Charles Battell Loomis was an American writer remembered mainly for his humor. Sources agree that he studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn and spent years in business before leaving that work in the early 1890s to write full time.

Loomis built his reputation through magazine sketches, books, and public readings or lectures. His writing was widely described as humorous, and bibliographic sources show a steady body of work that included titles such as Cheer Up, The Literary Guillotine, and I've Been Thinking. An online books listing also shows that his work continued to circulate in collected and digitized editions.

He died in 1911. Today, he is best remembered as one of the lighter, more genial American humor writers of his era, with a style shaped less by grand themes than by wit, observation, and a taste for everyday comedy.