Gail Collins

American journalist, columnist and author

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
NationalityAmerican
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
SpouseDan Collins
Website
about.me/gailcollins

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]

Collins writes a semi-weekly op-ed column for the Times from her liberal[4] perspective, published Thursdays and Saturdays.[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

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]

Collins taught journalism at Southern Connecticut State University from 1977 to 1979; and from fall 2009 until 2012, she co-taught (with Seth Lipsky) an opinion writing course at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[11] She has been a frequent guest on NPR and on Jon Wiener's podcast, Start Making Sense.[15][16]

Bibliography

External videos
video icon Booknotes interview with Collins on America's Women, December 14, 2003, C-SPAN
video icon Washington Journal interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, October 20, 2009, C-SPAN
video icon After Words interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, January 2, 2010, C-SPAN
video icon Discussion with Collins on As Texas Goes...', June 10, 2012, C-SPAN
video icon Interview with Collins on When Everything Changed, January 15, 2017, C-SPAN
video icon 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

  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 September 26, 2015.
  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. ^ a b "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.
  15. ^ Jon Wiener (May 21, 2012). "Jon Wiener". The Nation. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  16. ^ "Gail Collins". NPR.org. Retrieved March 15, 2018.

External links

  • Gail Collins' page at the New York Times
  • Gail Collins author page at W.W. Norton
  • Gail Collins page at NPR
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Collins (December 14, 2003), concerning her book, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines
  • v
  • t
  • e
1970–1979
1978
1979
1980–1989
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1988
1989
1990–1999
1990
1991
  • Berenice Abbott
  • Earladeen Badger
  • Hallie Brown
  • JoAnn Davidson
  • Raquel Diaz-Sprague
  • Rita Dove
  • Mary Ignatia Gavin
  • Sara Harper
  • Donna Hawk
  • June Holley
  • Martha C. Moore
  • Darlene Owens
  • Helen H. Peterson
  • Martha Pituch
  • Yvonne Pointer
  • Virginia Ruehlmann
  • Josephine Schwarz
  • Suzanne Timken
  • Nancy Vertrone Bieniek
  • Stella Marie Zannoni
1992
  • Mary of the Annunciation Beaumont
  • Antoinette Eaton
  • Rubie McCullough
  • Nancy Oakley
  • Harriet Parker
  • Susan Porter
  • Helen Steiner Rice
  • Alice Schille
  • Louella Thompson
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
  • Carol Ball
  • Marilyn Byers
  • Jean Murrell Capers
  • Martha Dorsey
  • Joan Heidelberg
  • Clarice Herbert
  • Beatrice Lampkin
  • Jacquelyn Mayer Townsend
  • Ann O'Rourke
  • Beryl Rothschild
  • Thekla Shackelford
1998
1999
  • MaryJo Behrensmeyer
  • Alvina Costilla
  • Sarah Deal
  • Electra Doren
  • Daisy Flowers
  • Annie Glenn
  • Ann Hamilton
  • Carole Hoover
  • Cheryl Han Horn
  • Carol Latham
  • Nancy Linenkugel
  • Marie Barrett Marsh
  • Marjorie Parham
  • Mary Regula
  • Lee Lenore Rubin
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Jerry Sue Thornton
  • Janet Voinovich
2000–2009
2000
2001
2002
2003
2007
  • Rogers Margaret Brugler
  • Julia Chatfield
  • Lucille Hastings
  • Lillie Howard
  • Mary Ann Jorgenson
  • Joyce Mahaney
  • Rozella Schlotfeldt
  • Katherine May Smith
  • Florence Wang
2008
2009
  • Gail Collins
  • Pamela B. Davis
  • Kim de Groh
  • Beverly J. Gray
  • Sharon Howard
  • Carol Kuhre
  • Virginia Manning
  • Helen Moss
  • Judith Rycus
  • Mary Adelaide Sandusky
  • Glenna Watson
  • Bernett Williams
  • Celia Williamson
2010–2019
2010
  • Owens Alvarene
  • Tenenbaum Gayle Channing
  • Dorothy McAlpin Maguire Chapman
  • Barbara Fergus
  • Merle Grace Kearns
  • Rebecca J. Lee
  • Nina McClelland
  • Lana Moresky
  • Martha Potter Otto
  • Elizabeth Ruppert
  • Rita Singh
2011
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
  • FAST
  • ISNI
  • VIAF
National
  • Norway
  • Germany
  • Israel
  • Belgium
  • United States
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
Other
  • IdRef