Edmond About (February 14, 1828-January 17, 1885) was a French author.

He was the son of a grocer at Dieuze, in Lorraine,France, where he was born Feb. 14, 1828. Even in childhood he displayed the vivacity of mind and the irreverent spirit whichwere to make him the most entertaining anti-clerical writer of his period. His tales have the qualities of the best writing of the eighteenth century, enhanced by the modern interest of his own century. "The King of the Mountains" is the best-known of his novels, as it is also the best. In 1854 About was working as a poor archaeologist at the French School at Athens, where he noticed there was a curious understanding between the brigands and the police of modern Greece. Brigandage was becoming a safe and almost a respectable Greek industry. "Why not make it quite respectable and regular?" said About. "Why does not some brigand chief, with a good connection, convert his business into a properly registered joint-stock company?" So he produced, in 1856, one of the most delightful of satirical novels, "The King of the Mountains."

Edmond About died on January 17, 1885, shortly after his election to the Académie française.