Ettore Lo Gatto (20 May 1890 – 16 March 1983) was an Italian linguist, literary historian, translator, critic and academic.

Born in Naples, Lo Gatto wrote his first novel, I misteri della Siberia, aged 13 years old.

[1][2] After graduating in law at the University of Naples Federico II, he followed some philosophy courses and then became interested in German studies, holding academic trips to Munich, Heidelberg, Bayreuth and Zürich and publishing translations of works by Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner and Hans Sachs.

[1][2] During World War I Lo Gatto was taken prisoner and interned in a camp in Sigmundsherberg, where he came into contact with Russian culture.

[1][2] After the war he knew a Russian teacher, Zoja Matveevna, who later became his wife and his closer collaborator.