Robert Ardrey (b. October 16, 1908, Chicago, Illinois—d. January 14, 1980, South Africa) was an American playwright and screenwriter who returned to his academic training in anthropology and the behavioral sciences in the 1950s.^[1][2]

African Genesis (1961) and The Territorial Imperative, two of Robert Ardrey's most widely read works, as well as Desmond Morris' The Naked Ape (1967), were key elements in the public discourse of the 1960s which challenged earlier anthropological assumptions. Ardrey's ideas notably influenced Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in the development of 2001: A Space Odyssey,^[3][4][5][6] as well as Sam Peckinpah, to whom Strother Martin gave copies of two of Ardrey's books.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

  Paleoanthropology

As a science writer for the informed non-specialist reader in paleoanthropology, which encompasses anthropology, ethology, paleontology and human evolution, Robert Ardrey was among the proponents of the hunting hypothesis and the killer ape theory.

Ardrey postulated that precursors of Australopithecus survived millions of years of drought in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, as the savannah spread and the forests shrank, by adapting the hunting ways of carnivorous species. Changes in survival techniques and social organisation gradually differentiated pre-humans from other primates. Concomitant changes in diet potentiated unique developments in the human brain.

The killer ape theory posits that aggression, a vital factor in hunting prey for food, was a fundamental characteristic which distinguished prehuman ancestors from other primates.

These themes have also been investigated in academia by, among others:

• Konrad Lorenz: On Aggression (1966)
• University of Chicago "Man the Hunter" symposium (1966): Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter: Symposium on Man the Hunter, University of Chicago. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.
• Sherwood Washburn and Chet Lancaster: Man the Hunter (1968). (Washburn's students Lee and DeVore organised the 1966 Chicago conference.)
• Craig Stanford: The Hunting Apes: Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior, Princeton University Press (2001).
• Erich Fromm: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973)
• Matt Cartmill: A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History (1996)

  Researchers

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:

• Warder Clyde Allee
• Charles Kimberlin Brain
• Robert Broom
• Helmut Buechner
• Clarence Ray Carpenter
• Raymond Dart
• Eliot Howard
• James Kitching
• Louis Leakey
• Eugene Marais
• Kenneth Oakley

  Books

Fiction

• World's Beginning (1944) (Cited in Everett F. Bleiler's The Checklist of Fantastic Literature, 1948.)
• The Brotherhood of Fear (1952)

Nonfiction

• 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) http://www.ditext.com/. . .
• The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder (1970) http://www.ditext.com/. . .
• The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man (1976)
• Aggression and Violence in Man: A Dialogue Between Dr. L.S.B. Leakey and Robert Ardrey (1971) ISBN 0-03-649184-6.

  Plays

• Star Spangled (1936)
• Casey Jones (1938)
• God and Texas (1938)
• How To Get Tough About It (1938)
• Thunder Rock (1939) (Thunder Rock filmed in 1942 in the UK, released 1944 in the US)
• Jeb (1946)
• Sing Me No Lullaby (1954)
• Shadow Of Heroes (1958) (produced in London as Stone and Star)

  Screenplays

• They Knew What They Wanted (1940) ^[12]
• A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
• The Green Years (1946)
• Song of Love (1947)
• The Three Musketeers (1948)
• Madame Bovary (1949)
• The Secret Garden (1949)
• The Schumann Story (1950) short film adaptation^[13] of Song of Love
• The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)
• The Power and the Prize (1956)
• The Wonderful Country (1959)
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) ^[2]
• Khartoum (1966)^[14] Nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
• The Animal Within (1975) documentary

  Honours

• 1935: Sergel Drama prize.
• 1937: Guggenheim fellowship.
• 1940: Sidney Howard Memorial prize.
• 1961: Theresa Helburn memorial award.
• 1963: Willkie Brothers grant for anthropology.
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

  Personal

Robert Ardrey was the son of Robert Leslie Ardrey, an editor and publisher, and the former Marie Haswell.^[2] 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.

The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in the Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University currently houses the Robert Ardrey Collection. ^[15]

  References

  External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert Ardrey

General

• Answers.com on Robert Ardrey.

Plays and screenplays

• Synopses of Thunder Rock and Sing Me No Lullaby.
• Robert Ardrey at the Internet Movie Database.

Paleoanthropology

• "The First Runner's High: Jogging Separated Humans From Apes." Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience, November 2004 (aspects of Miocene/Pliocene transition - from forest to savannah - central to Ardrey's theses).
• "Exploring Our Basic Human Nature: Are Humans Inherently Violent?" Robert W. Sussman, Anthro Notes: National Museum of Natural History Bulletin for Teachers, Vol. 19 No. 3, Fall 1997.
• Excerpts from African Genesis.
• The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder.