Oscar Cargill (19 March 1898, Livermore Falls, Maine – 18 April 1972, Montclair, New Jersey) was a writer, editor, and professor of English. He graduated in 1922 from Wesleyan University and became an English instructor at Marietta College and then Michigan State University. He enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University, studied in 1927–1928 at Stanford University on a Cutting fellowship from Columbia, and received his doctorate from Columbia in 1930. Cargill became a professor at New York University, served for some years as the chair of the English department, and from 1948 to 1966 was the director of N.Y.U.'s American civilization program.