Frederick W. Loring (1848-1871) was an American poet, novelist, and journalist. Born in Boston, he was a distant grandson of English settler Thomas Loring, who arrived in New England in 1634. Educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard University, Loring showed early promise as a writer and literary scholar, no doubt stemming from his late mother's encouragement and love of reading. After graduating from college, where he contributed to the Harvard Advocate literary magazine, Loring published a novel, Two College Friends (1871), and a poetry collection entitled The Boston Dip and Other Verses (1871). Over the next year, he found publication in such journals and periodicals as The Atlantic Monthly, The Independent, Every Saturday, and Appleton's Journal. For the latter, Loring left in spring of 1871 to report on the expedition of Lieutenant George M. Wheeler to Arizona. In November of that year, having passed through Death Valley at the height of summer and published several articles for Appleton's, Loring was among six stagecoach passengers killed in an attack by a group of Yavapai in the vicinity of Wickenburg Arizona. He is remembered today as a talented writer whose promising career was cut short before it could fully blossom. Loring's only novel has been praised as a pioneering story of male homosexuality for its depiction of young men united by friendship, romance, and tragedy.

Best friends and college classmates find their friendship strained at the onset of the Civil War. While Ned is commissioned an officer, Tom faces opposition from his parents, who encourage him to complete his Harvard education. After a year of torturous silence, they reunite in a vastly different world. Two College Friends is a novel by Frederick W. Loring.