Gail Collins (born November 25, 1945)[1] is an American journalist, op-ed columnist and author, most recognized for her work with The New York Times.[2][3] Joining the Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board, she served as the paper's Editorial Page Editor from 2001 to 2007 and was the first woman to attain that position.[2]

Gail Collins
Gail Collins at Rutgers University in 2019
Gail Collins at Rutgers University in 2019
BornGail Gleason
(1945-11-25) November 25, 1945 (age 78)
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationJournalist, op-ed columnist
Alma materMarquette University (B.A.)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (M.A.)
Notable worksAs Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
Spouse
(m. 1970; died 2024)
Website
about.me/gailcollins

Collins writes a weekly op-ed column for the Times from her liberal[4] perspective, published Thursdays .[2] Since 2014 she has co-authored a blog with conservative journalist Bret Stephens entitled "The Conversation", at NYTimes.com, featuring bi-partisan political commentary.[5]

Biography

edit

Born in Cincinnati in 1945 as Gail Gleason,[1] Collins attended Seton High School before earning a B.A. in journalism at Marquette University in 1967 and an M.A. in government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1971.[6][7]

Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she wrote for Connecticut publications, including the Hartford Advocate,[8] and, in 1972, founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, a news service providing coverage of the state capital and Connecticut politics.[9] When she sold the bureau in 1977, it had grown into the largest service of its kind in the United States.[9] As a freelance writer in the late 1970s, she wrote weekly columns for the Connecticut Business Journal and was a public affairs host for Connecticut Public Television.[9][10]

From 1982 to 1985 Collins covered finance as a reporter for United Press International.[6][9] She wrote as a columnist for the New York Daily News from 1985 to 1991.[6][9]

From 1991 to 1995, Collins worked for Newsday.[6][9] She then joined The New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board,[7] and later as an op-ed columnist. In 2001, she was named the paper's first female Editorial Page Editor, a position she held for six years. She resigned from this post at the beginning of 2007 to take a six-month leave to focus on writing her book When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, returning to the Times as a regular columnist in July 2007.[2]

Beyond her work as a journalist, Collins has published several books: The Millennium Book, which she co-authored with her husband, CBS News producer Dan Collins; Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics; America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines; the aforementioned When Everything Changed; and As Texas Goes: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda.[2][11][12] She also wrote the introduction for the 2013 50th-anniversary edition of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.[13] In 2019, her book No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History was published.[14]

Bibliography

edit
External videos
  Booknotes interview with Collins on America's Women, December 14, 2003, C-SPAN
  Washington Journal interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, October 20, 2009, C-SPAN
  After Words interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, January 2, 2010, C-SPAN
  Discussion with Collins on As Texas Goes...', June 10, 2012, C-SPAN
  Interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, January 15, 2017, C-SPAN
  Interview with Collins on Now Stopping Us Now, September 26, 2020, C-SPAN
  • With Dan Collins: The Millennium Book. Main Street Books. 1990. ISBN 0-385-41165-0.
  • America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines. William Morrow and Company. 2003. ISBN 0-06-018510-4.
  • Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics. William Morrow and Company. 1998. ISBN 0-688-14914-6.
  • When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Little, Brown and Company. 2009. ISBN 978-0-316-05954-1.
  • As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 2012. ISBN 978-0-87140-407-7
  • William Henry Harrison: The American Presidents Series: The 9th President, 1841. New York: Times Books, 2012. ISBN 9780805091182
  • "Introduction" (2013), in: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique. 50th anniversary edition. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-063790.
  • No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America. Little, Brown and Company, 2019 ISBN 9780316286541

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Thompson, Clifford, ed. (1999). Current biography yearbook. H.W. Wilson Company. ISBN 0-8242-0988-5.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gail Collins" [columnist biography]. New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  3. ^ "UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences: Alumni—Gail Collins". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
  4. ^ "Why Is Times Columnist Gail Collins So Obsessed With Mitt Romney's Dog?". NPR.org. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  5. ^ "The Conversation". The New York Times.
  6. ^ a b c d Fisher, Luchina (November 30, 2003). "Gail Collins: History Maker and Women's Historian" (Journalist of the Month). WeNews. Retrieved September 27, 2015 from womensenews.org
  7. ^ a b "Gail Collins Is Joining Times Editorial Board" (September 5, 1995). New York Times. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  8. ^ "Gail Collins Named Lifetime Achievement Winner" (January 12, 2012). National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Retrieved September 27, 2015 from www.columnists.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Columnist Biography: Gail Collins" (April 5, 2001). New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  10. ^ "Knight Fellowships: 2003 Knight Lecture: Gail Collins". Stanford University. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
  11. ^ "Collins, Gail" (2014). In: K. H. Nemeh (Ed.), The Writers Directory. 32nd ed. Vol. 1. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press. p. 637.
  12. ^ Ostrow, Joanne (June 3, 2012). "Book review: Columnist Gail Collins mixes trademark humor with politics in "How Texas hijacked the American Agenda"". Denver Post.
  13. ^ "The Feminine Mystique". W. W. Norton & Company. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  14. ^ No Stopping Us Now. February 5, 2019.
edit