Robert Myron Coates (1897-1973) was an American writer and an art critic for the New Yorker. He coined the term, "Abstract Expressionism" in 1946 in reference to the works of Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. As a writer of fiction, he is considered a member of the Lost Generation, spending part of his life abroad in Europe. His first three novels are highly experimental, drawing upon Dada, surrealism and expressionism for their effect. His last two novels are examples of crime fiction in which the narrator presents a psychopathological case study of the protagonist.