Robert Payne (1911–1983) was a writer known for his novels, poems, and articles. Payne specialized in biography and history. After working and studying abroad Asia, he moved to the United States, where he became a professor of English literature. He spent the rest of his life in New York. A prolific biographic, Payne wrote some of the essential texts on Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Mao Zedong, Lenin, and Gandhi.