Edwin Abbott Abbott FBA (20 December 1838 - 12 October 1926)[1] was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella Flatland (1884). Edwin Abbott Abbott was the eldest son of Edwin Abbott (1808-1882), headmaster of the Philological School, Marylebone, and his wife, Jane Abbott (1806-1882). His parents were first cousins. He was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours of his class in classics, mathematics and theology, and became a fellow of his college. In particular, he was 1st Smith's prizeman in 1861.[2][a] In 1862 he took orders. After holding masterships at King Edward's School, Birmingham, he succeeded G. F.

Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London School in 1865, at the early age of 26. There, he oversaw the education of future Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. Abbott was Hulsean lecturer in 1876.[3] He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology.

In 1885, he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), where he tried to raise interest in Gospels reading, Onesimus (1882), and Silanus the Christian (1908).