John Kenyon Nicholson (May 21, 1894 – December 19, 1986) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Kenyon Nicholson's first Broadway success was The Barker, which was produced by Charles L. Wagner and Edgar Selwyn at the Biltmore Theater in January, 1927. Walter Huston played the lead, Nifty Miller, the manager of a traveling tent show who is surprised when his son quits school to join the show. Claudette Colbert played the part of Lou, a snake charmer who falls for Nifty's son. Nicholson adapted The Barker into a novel, published in 1927.