Robert Cooke Goolrick (August 4, 1948 – April 29, 2022) was an American writer whose first novel sold more than five million copies.

Born in a small university town in Virginia, Goolrick grew up in a place where the chief pastimes were drinking bourbon and telling complex anecdotes. As a Southerner, the past held as much weight as the present, echoing the sentiment of Faulkner that "it is not even past."

Goolrick attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and spent several years living in Europe, aspiring to be an actor or a painter. Eventually, he moved to New York after being disinherited by his parents, like many small-town individuals seeking freedom in expression.