Robert Littell (born January 8, 1935) is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union.
Littell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is a 1956 graduate of Alfred University in western New York. He spent four years in the U.S. Navy and served at times as his ship's navigator, antisubmarine warfare officer, communications officer, and deck watch officer.
Later Littell became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War.
Littell is an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell.