Artist and author, began his education at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He also studied at the Art Students' League, Ecole Des Beaux-Arts, and the Academie Julian. Robert's illustrations were sold to such fame magazines as Life, Time and Vogue. His career in art was limited and for reasons unknown, he began to devote himself to writing and producing novels. He was known for his weird writing genre, and was most famous for his fictitious drama; "The King in Yellow." Later, the collection of weird short stories was noted to be one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction. Other collections from the famed author include "The Maker of Moons," "The Tree of Heaven," "In Search of the Unknown," and "Police!!!" Later in life he turned to writing romantic fiction followed solely by historical fiction. He was said to be one of the most successful authors in his period and his later novels became best sellers and were also serialized in magazines. For many years he resided in Broadalbin, New York during the summer months. It is said some of his historical fiction is based upon colonial life in Broadalbin.