Winfield Townley Scott (April 30, 1910 – April 28, 1968) was an American poet, critic and diarist.
Scott was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, seven days after the arrival of Halley's Comet. He graduated from Brown University in 1931.
He penned an important early appreciation of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) — "His Own Most Fantastic Creation: Howard Phillips Lovecraft" (1944). Another essay on Lovecraft, "Lovecraft as a Poet", first appeared in Rhode Island on Lovecraft (1945) and was reprinted elsewhere in a revised version as "A Parenthesis on Lovecraft as Poet." He corresponded with Lovecraft, and in 1950, advised J. Warren Thomas about a biographical thesis. He was editor of The Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin
Scott was primarily known for his journals. He published these as A Dirty Hand (1958). He corresponded with Ruth Lechlitner.
Several of his poems appear in the book, "Dont Forget To Fly", an anthology (that includes many other famous works) collected by Paul B. Janeczko, Bradbury Press, published in 1981.
He died due to a drug reaction in 1968.