Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897–July 15, 1976) was a successful U.S. novelist and short story writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. He is perhaps best remembered for the story The Snow Goose, which was his only real critical success, and for his novel The Poseidon Adventure, primarily because it has been made into several films, particularly the generally well-received 1972 version.

Gallico was born in New York City. His father was an Italian, and his mother came from Austria; they had emigrated to New York in 1895. Gallico first achieved notability in the 1920s as a sportswriter, sports columnist, and sports editor of the New York Daily News. His career was launched by an interview with boxer Jack Dempsey in which he asked Dempsey to spar with him, and described how it felt to be knocked out by the heavyweight champion. He followed up with accounts of catching Dizzy Dean's fastball and golfing with Bobby Jones. He became a national celebrity and one of the highest-paid sportswriters in America. He founded the Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition. His 1942 book, Lou Gehrig: Pride of the Yankees was adapted into a classic sports movie.

In the late 1930s he abandoned sportswriting for fiction, first writing an essay about this decision entitled "Farewell to Sport", and became an extremely successful writer of short stories for magazines, many appearing in the then-premier fiction outlet, The Saturday Evening Post. Many of his novels, including The Snow Goose, are expanded versions of his magazine stories.

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