Matt Christopher (1917-1997) was an American author of children's books. He was a gifted athlete as a youth and became interested in writing at age fourteen, but it was 1941 before he sold his first story, The Missing Finger Points, to Detective Story magazine. His first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat, was published in 1954. Christopher wrote more than one hundred books as well as nearly three hundred short stories and articles published in over sixty-five magazines for children and adults. He was awarded the 1993 Milner Award and numerous writing honors from state organizations.