Ella Leffland (born November 25, 1931) is an American novelist and short story writer. Though the themes of her early works dealt with California, where she grew up, she is perhaps best known for her historic novel based on the life of Hermann Göring, The Knight, Death, and The Devil, published in 1990.
Leffland was born and raised in Martinez, California. She attended San Jose State University.Her story "Last Courtesies", published in Harper's Magazine, won the O. Henry Award in 1974. She has written five novels and a collection of short stories, including Rumors of Peace (1979) (about a young girl's coming of age in a small California town during World War II) and Mrs. Munck (1970), a gothic tale of a woman's vengeance on the man who abandoned her decades before, made into a film adapted, directed, and starring Diane Ladd ). She has also written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review