Robert Harris Chapman (April 4, 1919 – September 27, 2000) was an American playwright and longtime academic of English literature and drama at Harvard University.
[1] He is best remembered for co-authoring the 1951 Broadway play Billy Budd, adapted from Herman Melville's novel of the same name, with Louis O. Coxe.
[1] During World War II he was stationed in Morocco and Europe while working for United States Navy intelligence with the rank of lieutenant.
[1] As a playwright, Chapman's most successful work was an adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd which he co-authored with Louis O. Coxe, a fellow faculty member at Princeton.
[4][1] The first version of their play, entitled Uniform of Flesh, debuted Off-Broadway at the Lenox Hill Theatre in 1949.