Ernest Pratt was a human author in the 22nd century, who wrote a series of books set in the Ancient West, featuring the character Cowboy Ralph.
Pratt's stories were favorites of Deanna Troi during her childhood, much to the dismay of her parents Ian and Lwaxana Troi. The former regarded Pratt as a hack writer and thought that his stories were the worst in his extensive Western collection. Ian lamented that his daughter did not have a preference for the far superior writings of Zane Grey and Larry McMurtry.
In 2343, Ian promised to read the Cowboy Ralph stories to the seven-year-old Deanna on his next trip home to Betazed. However, he was killed shortly afterwards while investigating a structural collapse on Raknal V with his old friend Starfleet Intelligence agent Elias Vaughn. Vaughn attributed the building's collapse to Romulan sabotage. (TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible)
- Ernest Pratt was also the name of a 19th century Western novelist in the short-lived TV series LegendWP, created by Star Trek Trek producer Michael Piller. John de Lancie was one of the stars of the series.