Roger Sherman Loomis

Roger Sherman Loomis (1887–1966) was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature. Loomis is perhaps best known for showing the roots of Arthurian legend, in particular the Holy Grail, in native Celtic mythology. Biography Roger Sherman Loomis was the son of Rev. Henry Loomis and Jane Herring Greene, the grandnephew of William Maxwell Evarts, and the great-great-grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman. Born on October 31, 1887, in Yokohama, Japan, he was educated at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College in 1909, a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1910, and, as a Rhodes Scholar, a Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) degree at New College, Oxford, in 1913. His BLitt dissertation, written under the supervision of Arthur Napier and C. F. Bell, was titled Illustrations of the Romances in Mediæval English Art. He held honorary degrees from Columbia, Williams, the University of Wales, and the University of Rennes in France.