Thomas Matthew McGrath, (November 20, 1916 near Sheldon, North Dakota – September 20, 1990, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was a celebrated American poet and screenwriter of documentary films.
He served in the Aleutian Islands with the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
McGrath also pursued postgraduate studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
McGrath was married three times and had one son, Tomasito, to whom much of the poet's later work was dedicated.
His best-known work, Letter to an Imaginary Friend, was published in sections between 1957 and 1985 and as a single poem in 1997 by Copper Canyon Press.