Xavier Herbert (born Alfred Jackson; 15 May 1901 – 10 November 1984) was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Poor Fellow My Country (1975).

He studied pharmacy at Perth Technical College and was registered as a pharmacist on 21 May 1923 as Alfred Xavier Herbert.

"[6] By 1982, the widowed Herbert was working on a new novel, "Me and My Shadow" and took a two-month tour of his birth state, Western Australia, in 1983 to gather material for the book.

[7] On 15 January 1984, at age 83, he left his home in Redlynch, Queensland for the last time to drive in his Land Rover into the centre of the country, the Northern Territory.

In June 1984, Herbert refused to accept an award of the Order of Australia from the Hawke government, on the grounds that it was a British Empire honour rather than a nationalist Australian one.

[8] In September, Herbert was treated for skin grafts on his leg and carpal tunnel syndrome in Alice Springs, where he was visited by the artist Sidney Nolan and his wife Mary.