Paul Dickson (born July 30, 1939) is a freelance writer of more than 65 non-fiction books, mostly on American English language, history, and popular culture.

"[6] In May 1979, he appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote his book The Official Rules, which detailed the history of Murphy's Law and similar aphorisms.

A review in the Boston Globe said the book “throws the spotlight on this new multi-billion dollar business that is transforming America and may even be serving as a kind of secret government.”[8] The journal Science wrote that “Dickson is good at describing the work and very good at capturing the special character of each institute, and his judgments can be refreshingly direct.”[9] He was a guest on the NBC show Today discussing the topic of the book.

Topics include government acronyms, country music lyrics,[11] and a whimsical look at the “poetry” of speeches that appeared had in the Congressional Record.

[12] In the 1980s he wrote or compiled language-oriented books on such topics as popular maxims and credos, names, family words, and, as described in the subtitle of one of his books A Connoisseur's Collection of Old and New, Weird and Wonderful, Useful and Outlandish Words.” In April 1989, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, compiled and edited by Dickson over an 18-month period, was published by Facts on File in time for the beginning of the baseball season.