About Robert
Robert Elegant was a British-American author and journalist whose career spanned many decades and several continents. Born in the Bronx in 1928, he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 15. After graduating he enlisted in the US army and studied Chinese and Japanese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. The 1944 GI Bill enabled Elegant to earn an MA in Far Eastern Studies and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, as well as a diploma of proficiency in Chinese from Yale.
Elegant worked as a journalist in Asia for many years, serving as Asia editor for Newsweek and as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times in New Delhi and Hong Kong. He covered the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Malayan Emergency and other major Asian conflicts.
His 18 books, which include historical novels, spy thrillers and non-fiction, have been published in 20 countries and translated into about as many languages. His novel Dynasty, a New York Times bestseller, sold millions of copies worldwide upon its release in 1977. After decades as a roving foreign correspondent, he became a full-time novelist in 1975, and until passing away in 2023 he split his time between the UK and Italy.
Robert Elegant 