Robert Ardrey (b. October 16, 1908, Chicago, Illinois—d. January 14, 1980, South Africa) was an American playwright and screenwriter in the 1950s.
African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, Robert Ardrey's most widely read works, as well as Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape (1967), were key elements in the public discourse of the 1960s which challenged earlier anthropological assumptions.

Paleoanthropology
Some of the scientists whose research particularly informed Robert Ardrey's scientific investigations, and with several of whom Ardrey consulted at length while developing his four major works in Africa from the 1940s through the 1970s, include:

W.C. Allee
C.K. Brain
Robert Broom
C.R. Carpenter
Raymond Dart
Eliot Howard
James Kitching
L.S.B. Leakey
Eugene Marais
Kenneth Oakley Researchers

World's Beginning (1944) (Cited in Everett F. Bleiler's The Checklist of Fantastic Literature, 1948.)
The Brotherhood of Fear (1952)
African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man (1961)
The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations (1966)
The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder (1970)
The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man (1976)
(with L.S.B. Leakey) Aggression and Violence in Man: A Dialogue Between Dr Louis Leakey and Mr Robert Ardrey. (1971) ISBN 0-03649-184-6. Books

Star Spangled (1936)
Casey Jones (1938)
God and Texas (1938)
How To Get Tough About It (1938)
Thunder Rock (1939) (filmed in 1943)
Jeb (1946)
Sing Me No Lullaby (1954)
Shadow Of Heroes (1958) (produced in London as Stone and Star) Honours
Robert Ardrey was the son of Robert Leslie Ardrey, an editor and publisher, and the former Marie Haswell. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago, where his mentor was Thornton Wilder. Ardrey was married to Helen Johnson, whom he met at the University, from 1938 until they divorced in 1960. They had two sons, Ross and Daniel. Ardrey married the South African stage actress Berdine Grunewald, who later illustrated his books, in 1960.