Frederick Wadsworth Loring was an American journalist, novelist, and poet whose promising literary career was cut short by his early death. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Loring graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1866, and later from Harvard University in 1870. During his time at Harvard, he first made his mark on the literary scene through his active contributions to the Harvard Advocate. Inheriting a deep love of literature from his late mother, he quickly established himself as a rising star in Boston's prominent intellectual circles.\n\nLoring's most enduring work is his 1871 novel, Two College Friends, which follows two Harvard students who serve together in the American Civil War. The novel has since been singled out by literary scholars as an important early representation of romantic male friendship. In addition to this novel, Loring published a collection of poetry, The Boston Dip and Other Verses, in 1871, and contributed numerous fictional and non-fictional pieces to highly regarded periodicals such as The Atlantic Monthly, Appleton's Journal, Old and New, The Independent, and Every Saturday.\n\nLoring's integration into the Boston literary establishment is further evidenced by his collaboration on the 1872 collective novel, Six of One by Half a Dozen of the Other: An Every Day Novel. Written alongside esteemed authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Adeline D.T. Whitney, Lucretia P. Hale, Frederic Beecher Perkins, and Edward Everett Hale, the novel was completed and published posthumously after Loring's sudden death in November 1871, with his co-authors finishing his remaining sections.
