Gail Collins

Gail Collins (born November 25, 1945^[1]) is a liberal / progressive^[2] American journalist, op-ed columnist and author, most recognized for her work with the New York Times.^[3][4] Joining the Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board, from 2001 to 2007 she served as the paper's Editorial Page Editor – the first woman to attain that position.^[3]

Collins writes a semi-weekly op-ed column for the Times from her liberal^[5] perspective, published Thursdays and Saturdays.^[3] In 2014 she co-authored a blog with conservative journalist David Brooks entitled "The Conversation," at NYTimes.com, featuring bi-partisan political commentary.^[6]

Biography[edit]

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1945 as Gail Gleason,^[1] Collins attended Seton High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) then went on to complete a B.A. in journalism at Marquette University, in 1967, and an M.A. in government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1971.^[7][8]

Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she wrote for Connecticut publications, including the Hartford Advocate,^[9] and, in 1972, founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, a news service providing coverage of the state capital and Connecticut politics.^[10] When she sold the bureau in 1977, it had grown into the largest service of its kind in the United States.^[10] 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.^[10][11]

From 1982 to 1985 Collins covered finance as a reporter for United Press International.^[7][10] She wrote as a columnist for the New York Daily News from 1985 to 1991.^[7][10] During her tenure for the Daily News, Collins wrote about the Central Park jogger case in which Trisha Meili, a white female jogger, was attacked in Manhattan's Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989.^[12] Reflecting upon Meili's socially privileged background, Collins insisted that Meili would never have voluntarily entered into a romantic relationship with an African American male, an assertion which writer Joan Didion and other journalists later criticized as pandering to "racial estrangement."^[12]

From 1991 to 1995, Collins worked for Newsday.^[7][10] She then joined The New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board,^[8] 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.^[3]

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.^[3][13][14] She also wrote the introduction for the 50th anniversary edition of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan; the 50th anniversary edition was published in 2013.^[15]

Collins taught journalism at Southern Connecticut State University from 1977 to 1979; and from fall 2009 until at least 2012 she co-taught (with Seth Lipsky) an opinion writing course in Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.^[13] She occasionally appears alongside her New York Times colleague David Brooks as a fill-in for Mark Shields on PBS Newshour's Political Wrap. She has been a frequent guest on NPR^[16] and on the radio talk show of Jon Wiener in Southern California.^[17]

Bibliography[edit]

• 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 0-316-05954-4.
• As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 2012. ISBN 978-0-87140-407-7
• "Introduction" (2013), in: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique. 50th anniversary edition. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-063790.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 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