Francis William Bain (29 April 1863 - 24 February 1940) was a British writer of fantasy stories that he claimed were translated from Sanskrit. He was born on 29 April 1863, the son of Joseph Bain. He was educated at Westminster School, before going up to Christ Church, Oxford where he distinguished himself as a student of Classics. In 1889, he was elected a fellow of All Souls College. In 1892, he entered the Indian Educational Service, going on to become a professor of History in the Deccan College of Poonah (Pune), in British India, until his retirement in 1919. He died on 24 February 1940. The first of his writings was A Digit of the Moon (1898), which Bain claimed was his translation of the eighth part of sixteen of a Sanskrit manuscript given to him by a brahmin.