Ann Radcliffe (9 July 1764 - 7 February 1823) was an English author and pioneer of the Gothic novel. Her style is Romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural. It was her technique "the explained supernatural," the final revelation of inexplicable phenomena, that helped the Gothic novel achieve respectability in the 1790s.

Very little is known of Ann Radcliffe's life. In 1823, the year of her death, the Edinburgh Review, said: "She never appeared in public, nor mingled in private society, but kept herself apart, like the sweet bird that sings its solitary notes, shrouded and unseen."

Radcliffe was born as Ann Ward in Holborn, London, on 9 July 1764. Her father was William Ward, a haberdasher, who later moved to Bath to manage a china shop. Her mother was Ann Oates. In 1787, she married the Oxford graduate and journalist William Radcliffe, part-owner and editor of the English Chronicle. He often came home late, and to occupy her time she began to write, and read her work to him when he returned home.

Radcliffe's fiction is characterised by seemingly supernatural events that are then provided rational explanations. Throughout her work, traditional moral values are asserted, the rights of women are advocated, and reason prevails.

Radcliffe is considered one of the founders of Gothic literature. While there were others that preceded her, Radcliffe was the one that legitimised the genre. Sir Walter Scott called her the "founder of a class or school," Radcliffe influenced many later authors, including the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), and of the many lesser imitators of the "Radcliffe School," such as Harriet Lee and Catherine Cuthbertson.