David Merrill Markson (December 20, 1927 – c. June 4, 2010) was an American novelist renowned for his postmodern narratives. Some of his notable works include Springer's Progress, Wittgenstein's Mistress, and Reader's Block. His final work, The Last Novel, was published in 2007 and acclaimed as "a real tour de force" by The New York Times.

Markson's literary style is known for its experimental and unconventional narrative structures. Celebrated author David Foster Wallace described Wittgenstein's Mistress as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country." Markson's earlier works were influenced by modernists like William Faulkner and Malcolm Lowry, though his later novels were filled with literary and artistic anecdotes, described by Markson as "nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like, an assemblage."

In addition to his contributions to modernist and postmodernist literature, Markson also published a book of poetry, a critical study of Malcolm Lowry, three crime novels, and an anti-Western titled The Ballad of Dingus Magee, which was adapted into the film Dirty Dingus Magee, starring Frank Sinatra.