Sterling Edmund Lanier (December 18, 1927 – June 28, 2007) was an American editor, science fiction author and sculptor.^[1] He is perhaps known best as the editor who championed the publication of Frank Herbert’s bestselling novel Dune.

Lanier was born on December 18, 1927, in New York City to Priscilla Thorne Taylor and Berwick Bruce Lanier.^[2] He was trained as an anthropologist and archaeologist and educated at Harvard, from which he graduated in 1951. He was a lifelong devotee of speculative fiction and a cryptozoology enthusiast. Before beginning his literary career, Lanier worked as a research historian at the Winterthur Museum from 1958 to 1960.^[3] He died in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 79.

Lanier's career as an author and editor began in 1961 when his first short story was published, and he became an editor for Chilton Books.

He was with Chilton in 1965, when he was instrumental in persuading the firm to publish Frank Herbert’s Dune. Having read Dune World in Analog magazine, he was responsible for tracking down the author and conveying Chilton's offer. More than twenty other publishing companies had already turned the book down. Despite Lanier's insight into the book's value, he was dismissed from Chilton a year later because of high publication costs and poor initial book sales. Lanier also worked as an editor for the John C. Winston Company and McRae-Smith.

The most prominent of Lanier's writings are his stories of the crypto-adventurer Brigadier Donald Ffellowes (told in the "club story" style of Lord Dunsany's Jorkens tales) and the post-apocalyptic novels Hiero's Journey (1973) and The Unforsaken Hiero (1983). His short story "A Father's Tale" (1974) was a World Fantasy Award nominee. His major works, including Hiero's Journey, The Unforsaken Hiero, and the Brigadier Ffellowes stories, are now available in an electronic version for Kindle.

Lanier's sculptures have been exhibited at several museums, including the Smithsonian Institution. He specialized in miniatures, among which were a series featuring characters from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings . One set was given to Tolkien himself, with whom Lanier corresponded. Tolkien reportedly admired the miniatures but did not want them to be marketed commercially, a wish Lanier respected.

In the videogame Elite: Dangerous, a Coriolis Starport in the Audheim system is named after Lanier, bearing the name Lanier Ring.