Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American author of short fiction, poet, translator and essayist. He was also a translator of French. He sometimes wrote essays and fiction in the French language. In 1961 and 1962 he wrote articles for the "Locus Solus". Mathews is best known for his novels "The Conversions" (1962) and "My Life in CIA" (2005). American conductor David Woodard praised his "Plaisirs singuliers" (1983) as "a long prose piece about masturbation."