Abraham Grace Merritt (January 20, 1884 – August 21, 1943) – known by his byline, A. Merritt – was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction.

Merritt was a major influence on H. P. Lovecraft and Richard Shaver, and highly esteemed by his friend and frequent collaborator Hannes Bok, a science fiction illustrator. Karl Edward Wagner included Burn Witch Burn on his list of “The Thirteen Best Supernatural Horror Novels” in the May 1983 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine. Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn list The Ship of Ishtar and Dwellers in the Mirage as two of the novels in their book Fantasy: the 100 Best Books, describing the former book as Merritt “at the peak of his powers”, and Merritt’s work as a whole being full of “memorable images”. Robert Bloch also included Burn Witch Burn on his list of favourite horror novels. Gary Gygax, creator of the game Dungeons and Dragons, listed Merritt in “Appendix N” of the Dungeon Masters Guide and often noted that he was one of his favorite fantasy authors. In the Lensman series by E.E. Smith, there is a reference to the novel Dwellers in the Mirage in which the protagonist Kimball Kinnison references the book and a quotation from it “Luka—turn your wheel so I need not slay this woman!”