Bertrand Collins

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]