James L. Traylor is an American writer and researcher of pulp and crime fiction. He earned a doctorate in English from Georgia State University, specializing in early realistic prose fiction. His work includes Dime Detective Companion, a reference book that indexes the magazine’s 274 issues and includes articles about its series and writers.

Traylor was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1985 for One Lonely Knight: Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, written with Max Allan Collins. He later co-authored Mickey Spillane on Screen and Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction with Collins.