Paul William Gallico was an American novelist and short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. He is perhaps best remembered for The Snow Goose, his most critically successful book, for the novel The Poseidon Adventure, primarily through the 1972 film adaptation, and for four novels about the beloved character of Mrs. Harris.

The Poseidon Adventure is an American adventure novel by Paul Gallico, published in 1969. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner, the S.S. Poseidon, due to an undersea earthquake that causes a 90-foot (27-meter) wave, and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to reach the bottom of the liner's hull before the ship sinks.