Howard William Bergerson (July 29, 1922 – February 19, 2011) was an American writer and poet, noted for his mastery of palindromes and other forms of wordplay.

Bergerson's first volume of poetry, The Spirit of Adolescence, was published in 1950, and earned him the state's nomination as Oregon Poet Laureate in 1957.

The result, the 1034-letter "Edna Waterfall",[3][4] was for some time listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest palindrome in English.

[1][5][6] In 1969, Bergerson became editor of Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, though stepped down a year later when Greenwood Periodicals dropped the publication.

[2][6] After serving in the US Army in the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II, he moved to Sweet Home, Oregon, down the road from the mill where he worked as a shingle weaver for over 50 years.