Twilighters Noel Moore Loomis Western Fiction Writer

The Twilighters by Noel M. Loomis, 1955
Here is a flaming story of a death struggle between
forcesof greedand hate, told with bruising realism. 

The Twilighters
Noel M. Loomis
Macmillan Company, 1955

This blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Source document: Alpine Echo. April 19, 1962.

From the Dustjacket Endflap
"I am the law!" roared Mat Foley. Old Mat was a powerful man, sure enough: owner of a huge valley in Kentucky, despotic ruler of his eight children and their families, one of the richest men in the Western Country in the early 1800's.

Anyone who set foot on Mat's domain without his permission was playing with fire. But even a king can miscalculate his power. Mat himself started a fire he couldn't control. He had a young boy whipped for trespassing, and allowed him to be killed by another member of the Foley clan. The aroused settlers literally smoked the Foleys out of the valley. Mat's dynasty in Kentucky was over. But west of Louisiana lay the rich territory of New Spain, enough land to satisfy Mat's greed. It was here that Mat decided to establish a new empire.

Mat's wagon train did not escape notice on the journey toward Tejas. Sam Mason, who led a gang of degenerate cutthroats, knew that $60,000 was riding with the Foleys. To get that much money, Mason's men would kill, and kill for the love of killing as well as for the gold. Sooner or later Mat's wagon train would have to enter the Twilight Zone, a vast, Godforsaken tract of land between Louisiana and New Spain. Waiting there were the sinister Twilighters, a band of ruthless men whose cruelty and avarice far surpassed Mat Foley's.

Here is a flaming story of a death struggle between the forces of greed and hate, told with bruising realism.

Noel Moore Loomis. 1963.
SOURCE

Clarence, Maybe this will make up for some of the
cigarettes I have chiseled from you. Noel M. Loomis. 

Noel Moore Loomis (1905-1969)

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Noel Moore Loomis (1905-1969) was an American newspaper man, printer and author born in Wakita in the Cherokee Strip before Oklahoma entered the Union in 1907.  Noel’s father, Leroy P. Loomis, was editor and publisher of the Texico Trumpet as well as USPS Postmaster in Texico, a town on the border between New Mexico and Texas.  

The Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman states that Loomis “has written everything from science fiction to a manual for Linotype operators,” yet he is best known for writing western short stories and novels under his own name as well as pseudonyms including Silas Water, Benjamin Miller, Frank Miller and Sam Allison.  

Loomis turned to writing full time after the Macmillian Company published his novel Buscadero in 1954. He liked to do his writing on a Linotype machine and moved one into the basement of his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he made his home for twenty years.  Dorothy Loomis, an author in her own right, assisted her husband by pulling proofs from the Linotype which were then converted into written manuscripts before submission to publishers. 

Van Wert Times Bulletin. October 27, 1955.

In the 1950s he wrote scripts for several of the popular western television shows including Cheyenne, Bonanza, and Have Gun Will Travel. His book, Johnny Concho, was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra. Mr. Loomis was an active member of the Western Writers of America, serving as its second president and taught English at San Diego State College. 

Noel Moore Loomis died from a brain tumor in 1969.

Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times. Tuesday, September 9, 1969.