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.^[8][9]

On October 7, 1994, Wiley died from the complications of AIDS.^[1]