Arthur Mitchell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967), was a famous children's author and journalist. His best known books are the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. He also wrote Old Peter's Russian Tales, a collection of translated Russian folktales which has been perennially popular. He, earlier, wrote books were about the literary life of London, Edgar Allen Poe and Oscar Wilde and later about the Russian Revolutions and its early years.