Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. He is perhaps best remembered for The Snow Goose, his only real critical success, and for the novel The Poseidon Adventure, primarily through the 1972 film adaptation.

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 graduated from Columbia University in 1919 and first achieved notability in the 1920s as a sportswriter, sports columnist, and sports editor of the New York Daily News.

Gallico's 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 the classic sports movie The Pride of the Yankees (1942), starring Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright.

There is no information about the book available on Wikipedia at this time, but here is a link to the film entry.