Charles Leonard Bouton (April 25, 1869 – February 20, 1922) was an American mathematician.

Charles L. Bouton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father was an engineer.

He later received a Master of Science degree from Washington University in St.

[1] From 1900 to 1902 Bouton was an editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.

[5] This result is today viewed as the birth of combinatorial game theory.