Henry Morton Robinson was an American novelist, best known for his 1950 novel The Cardinal, detailing the life of Stephen Fermoyle, a young American priest who eventually becomes a Prince of the Church. The story is based in part on the career of Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York (1939-1967). The novel was adapted to an Academy Award nominated film in 1963, directed by Otto Preminger and starring Tom Tryon.

He graduated from Columbia College in 1923 after serving in the US Navy during the First World War.

He was an instructor in English at Columbia University, and a senior editor at Reader's Digest.

On December 23, 1960, he fell asleep in a hot bath after taking a sedative. Three weeks later, on January 13, 1961, he died of complications from the resulting second- and third-degree burns.