| Birth Name: | Robert Mason Wiley |
| Birth Date: | 30 May 1955 |
| Birth Place: | Nash County, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Death Place: | New York City, New York, U.S |
| Alma Mater: | Episcopal High School |
| Notable Works: | The Official Preppy Handbook |
Robert Mason Wiley (May 30, 1955 – October 7, 1994) was an author who co-wrote The Official Preppy Handbook and Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards.[1]
Wiley was born in Nash County, North Carolina on May 30, 1955.[2] He attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia and graduated from Columbia University in 1977.[3] [4]
While working for the Columbia Daily Spectator, he met future film critic and historian Damien Bona, who later became his writing collaborator.[5]
He was one of the four authors of The Official Preppy Handbook, a humorous, best-selling reference book on prep culture published in 1980.[6] As the only southerner among the writers, Wiley included Southern prep culture to offset the predominant New England vibes.[7]
In 1986, he and Bona wrote a year-by-year account of the Academy Awards that took 4 years of writing and research, with a fourth edition published in 1993.[8]
Wiley also was a critic for such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Time, Entertainment Weekly and others.[9]
On October 7, 1994, Wiley died from the complications of AIDS.