Bertrand Collins

Edward Bertrand Collins
Born (1893-03-15)March 15, 1893
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died December 16, 1964(1964-12-16) (aged 71)
Citizenship United States
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation author
Parents

Edward Bertrand Collins (March 15, 1893 - December 16, 1964), commonly known as Bertrand Collins, was an American author from Seattle, Washington.[1][2]

Collins was born in Seattle to John Collins and his much younger wife, Angela. 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.[lower-alpha 1] [3][4][5]

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".[6][7]

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.[6][8][4]

Collins' 1928 novel Rome Express is based on the life of his contemporary, and fellow wealthy Seattle cosmopolitan, Guendolen Plestcheeff.[9]

Bibliography

  • Rome Express (1928)
  • The Silver Swan (1930)
  • Moon in the West (1933)

Notes

  1. ↑ An amount equivalent to about $20 million in 2015.

References

  1. ↑ Trombold, John (2014). Reading Seattle: The City in Prose. University of Washington Press. p. 12. ISBN 0295805552.
  2. ↑ Easton, Valerie (December 22, 2016). "Book City: Historians read the heaviest books". Crosscut. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Navy Officer's Wife to Get $834,000". San Francisco Call. September 5, 1913.
  4. 1 2 Dorpat, Paul (March 14, 2014). "From this grand Seattle home came a trove of good deeds". Seattle Times. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Haley, Delphine (1995). Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life. Sasquatch Books. p. 28. ISBN 1570610290.
  6. 1 2 Keating, Isabelle (October 10, 1930). "Women Will Ruin U.S., Collins Fears". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ Harvard College Class of 1914. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. 1921. p. 55.
  8. ↑ "Militancy Avoided". Oakland Tribune. August 26, 1934. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  9. ↑ 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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