Bertrand Collins
Edward Bertrand Collins | |
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| Born | March 15, 1893 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | December 16, 1964 (aged 71) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | author |
| Parents |
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Edward Bertrand Collins (March 15, 1893 – December 16, 1964), commonly known as Bertrand Collins, was an American writer from Seattle, Washington.[1][2]
Collins was born in Seattle to John Collins and his much younger wife, Angela Burdett-Coutts.[3] Jackling, whose family founded the lumber mills at Utsalady on Camano Island, WA[4] in 1859. As a child, he was playmates with the lumber heiress Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, who grew up near to the Collins' home. His father died in 1903 and, ten years later, the young Collins received a disbursement of $834,000 from his father's estate.[a][5][6][7]
Collins graduated from Harvard University in 1914 and, in 1917 was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy, serving at the navy's European headquarters in London before taking a shipboard posting on USS Housatonic. In the 1920s he traveled extensively in Europe. A profile of Collins published in a 1930 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described him as "swarthy" and "good-looking" with "Celtic blue eyes and a ... slight British accent".[8][9]
Collins often played on his privileged upbringing to engage in witty commentary that was "extremely audacious in a well bred manner". In 1934, after driving back to Seattle from New York City, he declared in a newspaper interview that the United States was "too big", remarking that "New England is about right ... and the Pacific Coast would make a nice, other Italy" but that he didn't see any use for the rest of the country, implying the Midwest.[8][10][6]
Collins' 1928 novel Rome Express is based on the life of his contemporary, and fellow wealthy Seattle cosmopolitan, Guendolen Plestcheeff.[11]
Bibliography[edit]
- Rome Express (1928)
- The Silver Swan (1930)
- Moon in the West (1933)
Notes[edit]
- ^ An amount equivalent to about $20 million in 2015.
References[edit]
- ^ Trombold, John (2014). Reading Seattle: The City in Prose. University of Washington Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0295805559.
- ^ Easton, Valerie (December 22, 2016). "Book City: Historians read the heaviest books". Crosscut. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ^ "Mrs. John Collins, Early Settler, Socialite, Dies". Seattle Times. September 21, 1947.
- ^ History of King County Washington, Vol. 4, pg. 493, Clarence B. Bagley, S.J.Clarke publisher, 1929
- ^ "Navy Officer's Wife to Get $834,000". San Francisco Call. September 5, 1913.
- ^ a b Dorpat, Paul (March 14, 2014). "From this grand Seattle home came a trove of good deeds". Seattle Times. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ Haley, Delphine (1995). Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life. Sasquatch Books. p. 28. ISBN 1570610290.
- ^ a b Keating, Isabelle (October 10, 1930). "Women Will Ruin U.S., Collins Fears". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ Harvard College Class of 1914. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. 1921. p. 55.
- ^ "Militancy Avoided". Oakland Tribune. August 26, 1934. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ Duncan, Don (November 2, 1990). "An Extraordinary Life – Her Life As A Social Butterfly Not Enough For Plestcheeff". Seattle Times. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
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