Russel B. Nye (died 1993) was a twentieth-century American historian and university professor. His 1957 collaboration with Martin Gardner, The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was, was one of the first serious considerations of the Oz mythos. Nye taught English at Michigan State University for 39 years, and served as chairman of the English Department for 13; he retired in 1979. The first of his dozen books, George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Nye also wrote widely on contemporary cultural subjects including jazz, comics, and television.