Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano (February 7, 1833 – October 6, 1919) was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician.

However, the documentary evidence shows many contradictions that was pointed out by Monsignor Salvador Herrera Pinto who relying on oral traditions collected and written testimonies directed to him (a catholic bishop) concludes that Ricardo Palma was born in the town of Talavera, province of Andahuaylas, Apurímac Region.

In 1860 he, among others, such as José Gálvez Egúsquiza, was believed to have participated in a failed plot against president Ramón Castilla which resulted in an exile to Chile from which he returned in October 1862.

He held the positions of Consul of Peru in Pará, Brazil, Senator for the Loreto and official in the Ministry of War and Navy.

Palma successfully took on the task of rebuilding the National Library that was ransacked by the occupation forces of the Chilean Army in 1881 following the battle of Lima during the War of the Pacific.

With his lover Clemencia Ramírez in 1872, he had his son Clemente Palma, who became a prominent writer of fantastic tales, usually horror stories, that were influenced by Edgar Allan Poe.

Ricardo Palma published his first verses and became the editor of a political and satiric newssheet called El Diablo (The Devil) at 15.

It was by creatively using poetic license and by deviating from "pure" history that Palma gained his large South American readership.

These stories are similar to the Tradiciones peruanas but, because of their bawdy nature, they were not published during Palma's lifetime for fear of shocking the sedate Lima establishment.

He was a noted linguistic scholar and wrote a number of works on the subject including the Neologismos y americanismos and Papeletas lexográficas.

In 1999, a well-known London auction house announced the sale of a batch of 50 letters that Ricardo Palma had written to an Argentinian friend.