Robert Sampson Elegant (born March 7, 1928) is a British-American author and journalist born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He spent many years in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

as a journalist. The Asian settings of all but one of his novels reflect that experience. He covered both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars, as well as four or five lesser conflicts. His latest novel, ''Cry Peace,'' is centered on the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

Career

Elegant holds degrees from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(AB,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

); and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(MA, Far Eastern studies, MS journalism, Distinguished Alumnus Award), as well as a diploma of proficiency in Chinese from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. He has been a Pulitzer Prize traveling fellow (1951) and received an Edgar Allan Poe Special Award in 1967 for ''A Kind of Treason,'' among the best first mystery thriller novels of the preceding year. He has, among other awards, received four prizes for best interpretation of foreign news by the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

of America. He was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting three times, a finalist twice. He has been a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina and Boston University. He has been a fellow of the Washington, D.C.

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...

, the Berlin, Germany, Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. He briefed Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger repeatedly on Asia in general, as well as China and Vietnam in particular. He is proud of a handwritten note from the former president whose undeniably momentous masterstroke in foreign affairs was reopening contact with mainland China. That note reads: "Dear Robert, You are my favorite China expert. Richard Nixon" Elegant is the patron of the Manchu Shih Tzu Society of Great Britain; he raises shih-tzu (Chinese lion) dogs and has been a devoted amateur sailor and owner of small craft for 50 years. He now lives in London and Italy. He frequently travels, mainly to the Far East. He speaks, reads, and writes Chinese and Japanese, having studied both the classical and modern languages, as well as German, Italian, and some Indonesian. His articles have been published in hundreds of newspapers and scores of weekly, biweekly, and monthly journals across the world, and his books have been published in a number of languages in 20 countries. In Delhi, India on April 16, 1956, painter Moira Clarissa Brady became his wife. She died of cancer January 19, 1999. Elegant married author and editor Ursula Rosemary Righter (née Douglas) on May 10, 2003, in Italy. His children are Victoria Ann, a gynecological and pharmacological physician, and Simon David Brady, journalist and novelist.

Bibliography

Nonfiction

* * ''The Dragon's Seed'', St. Martin's (1959) * ''The Center of the World'', Doubleday (1964) (revised edition by Funk in 1968) * ''Mao's Great Revolution'', World Publishing (1971) * ''China's Red Masters: Political Biographies of the Chinese Communist Leaders'', Greenwood Press (1971) (First reprint) * ''Mao vs. Chiang: The Battle for China'', Grosset & Dunlap (1972) * ''The Great Cities: Hong Kong'', Time-Life (1977) * ''Pacific Destiny: Inside Asia Today'', Crown (1990) * This is an updated version of an article that first appeared in the ''National Review''.

Fiction

* ''A Kind of Treason'', Holt (1966) * ''The Seeking'', Funk (1969) * ''Dynasty'', McGraw (1976) * ''Manchu'', McGraw (1979) * ''

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

'', Simon & Schuster (1983) * ''White Sun, Red Star'', Hamish Hamilton (1986) (published as ''From a Far Land'' by Random House in 1987) * ''Bianca'',

Sinclair-Stevenson Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd is a British publisher founded in 1989 by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson became an editor at Hamish Hamilton in 1961. Thirteen years later in 1974 he became managing director, establishing ...

(1992) (St Martin's also published it in 1995) * ''The Everlasting Sorrow'', Reed International (1994) * ''Last Year in Hong Kong: A Love Story'', Morrow (1997) * ''The Big Brown Bears'', Hale (1998) * ''Cry Peace'', Hale (2005)

Sources

* "Robert (Sampson) Elegant," ''

Contemporary Authors Online ''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work which has been published by Gale since 1962. It provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers. ''Contemporary Authors'' does not have selective inclusion cr ...

'', entry updated 4 April 2001.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elegant, Robert 1928 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers American male novelists American reporters and correspondents American war correspondents Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Quadrant (magazine) people University of Pennsylvania alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers American emigrants to the United Kingdom