John M. Weatherwax (1900-1984) was an American writer from San Francisco, California.

Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he attended the University of Washington in Seattle for two years before going to Harvard College in 1921. His studies focused on English literature, business, mythology, and world literature. Weatherwax wrote a number of children's stories and, in 1934, co-authored with his sister and brother-in-law Gerald Strang, The Coming of the Animals, and a series of California Native American stories.

John M. Weatherwax met Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo, in 1931 while in San Francisco when the couple stayed with sculptor Ralph Stackpole in his studio on Montgomery Street. Rivera was there to work on a commission to paint a mural for the San Francisco Stock Exchange. At the time Weatherwax was working on an English translation of the ancient Mayan manuscript, Popol Vuh, and asked Rivera if he would provide illustrations for the manuscript. Although the translation was never published, Rivera agreed and produced twenty-four watercolor illustrations for the text. It was many years from the foundering of this project in 1933 before the Popol Vuh pictures were ever exhibited.