Howard Pease (1894 - 1974) was an American writer of adventure stories from Stockton, California. Most of his stories revolved around a young protagonist, William Todhunter ("Tod") Moran who shipped out on tramp freighters during the interwar years. For most of his life Pease resided in the San Francisco area, except for those times when he shipped out as a member of the crew on a freighter, searching for new material. In addition to writing children's stories Pease taught high school, contributed to journals and reviewed books for the New York Times.