Richard Edward Connell (October 17, 1893 – November 22, 1949) was an American author and journalist.

Connell was born in Dutchess County, New York, United States. His father became a representative of the sixty-second U.S. Congress in 1911, where he served for one year before his death on October 30, 1912. Richard Connell began his career at a young age when he covered baseball games for his father when he was only six years old. He was so good that, by the age of sixteen, he was already editing for the local newspaper, the Poughkeepsie News-Press . He also worked as a secretary for his father for a time before applying to Georgetown College. He was accepted and proceeded to spend one year there before he volunteered to serve in World War I. He traveled and settled in European countries for a time before moving back to and enrolling in Harvard University in 1912, the year of his father's death.

He edited newspapers like the Daily Crimson and the Lampoon. Richard Connell became a freelance writer in 1919. He wrote several short stories including A Friend of Napoleon (1923) and The Most Dangerous Game (1924), otherwise known as The Hounds of Zaroff. The Most Dangerous Game was awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award in 1924. Connell became one of the best-known American short story writers, and had equal success as a journalist and screenwriter. He died in Beverly Hills, California at the age of fifty-six of heart-attack on November 22, 1949.