Richard H. Collin

Richard Harvey Collin (March 4, 1932 – January 19, 2010, or January 20, 2010) was an American historian, university professor, restaurant critic, and cookbook writer. He was notable for his research in the life and presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Collin's contributions to Theodore Roosevelt scholarship included his dissertation, two monographs on Roosevelt, editing a book length collection of papers on the President, journal articles, and book reviews related to other writers' works on the President. His food writing, much of it written together with his wife Rima, included cookbooks and restaurant reviews.

Early life and education Collin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Bernard ("Barney") Collin,

Collin received his PhD from New York University in 1966.

Personal life Collin's parents were immigrants from England who settled in Philadelphia. According to the announcement published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Collin became engaged to Frances Wene in 1954. He married Wene on August 15, 1954. They were divorced in 1969. After their divorce, Wene married Robert H. Levy, an attorney. During the 1960s, Collin met his second wife, Rima Drell Reck, a professor of comparative literature at the University of New Orleans. They were married from 1969 until her death in 1998.

After Reck's death in 1998, Collin wrote Travels with Rima (2002), a memoir of his life together with Reck.

Two years after Reck's death, Collin met a widow, Phyllis Mayronne.

Throughout his career as a college professor, Collin published articles and book reviews in scholarly periodicals. Although there were exceptions, these articles and book reviews focused on Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and, to a lesser degree, Woodrow Wilson.

With changing mores in the 1960s, Collin went from being a conventional dresser in a business suit and a necktie to a more bohemian appearance, and he was known around the campus for wearing sandals and often wearing purple clothing.

Collin maintained longtime friendships with his former University of New Orleans students, including Michael Ledet, an artist and book designer, and Tom Fitzmorris, a food critic. In an interview after Collin's death, Ledet stated that Collin "...was an eccentric, sweet man, an intellectual in every sense of the word... [and he] ...was my best friend for 45 years."

In 1970, Collin heard about the "Underground Gourmet" series of restaurant guidebooks, published by Simon & Schuster. Collin wrote to the publisher, asking if they would be interested in a New Orleans version, and the publisher agreed. The contract was negotiated with the help of his first wife, Frances Collin, who is a literary agent. The resulting restaurant guide, The New Orleans Underground Gourmet, published in the summer of 1970, was "the first rated restaurant guide in the city's history." According to Gene Bourg, a former restaurant critic at The Times-Picayune, Collin's book was successful for Simon & Schuster and it "...sold like hotcakes." Collin's book established him as the first New Orleans restaurant critic.

Several months after Simon & Schuster published Collin's book, the New Orleans States-Item hired Collin to write a weekly restaurant column. Collin employed an elaborate rating system for the quality of food at various restaurants. For exceptionally good dishes, Collin used the phrase platonic dishes – a reference to Plato and the Socratic dialogue The Republic. Collin used the designation platonic dishes sparingly. Lesser culinary offerings received ratings of highly recommended or – for more prosaic menu items – recommended.

Collin reviews encompassed all sorts of restaurants and cuisines, including fine-dining establishments such as well as fast-food restaurants. He was especially enamored with Po-Boy sandwiches and wrote of them at length. Collin had an intense dislike of stuffed artichokes, a dish associated with Italian restaurants in New Orleans.

Collin's work as a restaurant critic was not without controversy, however. If a restaurant received a favorable review, the restaurant owner was happy. If Collin gave an unfavorable review, restaurateurs complained, and one sent an angry letter to Collin's publisher, Simon and Schuster. Later, at a 1975 meeting of New Orleans restaurateurs, Collin's reviews "were subject to protest...",

In one instance, a review from Collin resulted in a lawsuit. A restaurant owner, Donald James Mashburn, sued Collin, the newspaper, and the publisher for defamation over a pointed review of his restaurant, Maison de Mashburn, which was located near Hammond, Louisiana. Collin's inflammatory review appeared in the June 22, 1974 issue of the States-Item.

The case made its way through the Louisiana state courts and ultimately was decided by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which issued a decision in favor of Collin on December 13, 1977.

With his spouse, Rima Drell Reck, Collin wrote The New Orleans Cookbook (1975), The New Orleans Restaurant Guide (1976 edition), The Pleasures of Seafood (1977), and the 1982 edition of The New Orleans Restaurant Guide. The New Orleans Cookbook has gone through multiple printings, has sold at least 100,000 copies, and remains in print; Associated Press book critic Cecily Brownstone called it "one of the best regional contributions we are likely to have".

Later years and death After Hurricane Katrina struck southern Louisiana in August 2005, Collin relocated to Birmingham, Alabama. Collin made periodic trips to New Orleans to eat at his favorite restaurants, He continued to reside in Birmingham until his death, however, Peggy Scott Laborde, a New Orleans documentary and television host, includes an interview of Collin in her 2001 public television documentary Lost Restaurants of New Orleans.

The New Orleans Cookbook has gone through multiple printings and remains in print

Many of Collin's books, personal papers, and music compact discs are now housed at the Library of Southeastern Louisiana University. Collin's longtime friends Phyllis Mayronne and Michael Ledet were instrumental in bringing these materials to the University. When Collin resided in Birmingham, his books "were scattered throughout his condominium and had over-flowed into a 60-foot storage unit, filling shelves on both sides of the unit."

Professional memberships Collin was a member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Studies Association, and the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Awards Penfield fellow of New York University, 1965 American Philosophical Society grant, 1967

Partial bibliography of publications by Richard H. Collin Books

The image of Theodore Roosevelt in American history and thought 1885-1965 [Dissertation—New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Science, 1966.] New Orleans Underground Gourmet, Simon & Schuster, 1970, revised edition, 1973. (Editor) Theodore Roosevelt and Reform Politics, Heath, 1972. (With wife, Rima Collin) New Orleans Cookbook, Knopf, 1975. (With Rima Collin) The Pleasures of Seafood, Holt, 1977. (With Rima Collin) New Orleans Restaurant Guide, Strether & Swann, 1976, 4th edition, 1982. Theodore Roosevelt, Culture, Diplomacy, and Expansion: A New View of American Imperialism, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1986. Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Latin America Context, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1990. Travels with Rima: A Memoir, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2002.

Journal Articles and Book Reviews

"Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to New Orleans and the Progressive Campaign of 1914," Louisiana History (Winter 1971) XII:5-19. "Henry Pringle's Theodore Roosevelt: A Study in Historical Revisionism," New York History (April 1971) 52(2):151-168. [Review of] "Louisiana Gothic: Recollections of the 1930s," Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association (1985) 26 (2): 212-214. [Review of] "The Learned Presidency: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (April 1988) 112(2):312-313. "The 1904 Detroit Compact: U.S. Naval Diplomacy and Dominican Revolutions." The Historian (May 1990) 52(3):432-452. [Review of] "Admirals and Empire: The United States Navy and the Caribbean, 1898-1945," The Journal of American History (1992) 79(2):689-690. "The Big Stick of Weltpolitik: Europe and Latin America in Theodore Roosevelt's Foreign Policy," in Natalie A. Naylor et al., eds. Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American, Heart of the Lakes Publishing (Interlaken, NY), 1992, pp. 295–316. [Review of] "The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt," Journal of Southern History 1992 58 (4):737–738. [Review of] "The Wilson Era: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Link." Presidential Studies Quarterly 1992 22 (1):172-174. [Review of] "Rhetorical Studies of National Political Debates, 1960-1988," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1992 22(3):604-606. [Review of] "US Hegemony under Siege: Class, Politics and Development in Latin America," and "A Hemisphere to Itself: A History of US-Latin American Relations," International History Review 1992 14(2):36-372. [Review of] "Settlement Folk: Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement, 1885-1930" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1992 524:209-210. [Review of] "Pride, Prejudice, and Politics: Roosevelt versus Recovery, 1933–1938," The Historian 1992 54(4):748-749. [Review of] "Woodrow Wilson: A Life for World Peace," and "Wilsonian Statecraft: Theory and Practice of Liberal Internationalism during World War I," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1993 23(4):825-828. [Review of] "Panama and the United States: The Forced Alliance," Pacific Historical Review 1993 62(3):383-384. [Review of] "American Salons: Encounters with European Modernism, 1885-1917," International History Review 1993 15(4):804-806. [Review of] "The United States in Central America, 1860-1911: Episodes of Social Imperialism and Imperial Rivalry in the World System" Journal of Southern History 1993 59(3):552-553. [Review of] "Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1994 24(3):625-627. "Public Collections and Private Collectors" [Review of] "Freer: A Legacy of Art," "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," "From Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector," "Great French Paintings from the Barnes Collection: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Early Modern," "In August Company: The Collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library," American Quarterly 1994 46(3):448-461. "The Tage's Visit to New Orleans, Mardi, Gras, 1903: Changing French Naval Strategy and Carnival Goodwill," Louisiana History 1994 35(1):51-66. "Symbiosis versus hegemony: New directions in the foreign relations historiography of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft," Diplomatic History 1995 19(3):473–497. [Review of] "'Brother Woodrow': A Memoir of Woodrow Wilson," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1995 25(3):572-573. [Review of] "Theodore Roosevelt: An American Mind: A Selection from His Writings," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1995 25(3):570-571. [Review of] "Impressionism for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector," International History Review 1996 18(1):168-170. [Review of] "Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire: A Study in Presidential Statecraft," International History Review 1998 20(4):999-1000. "In Memoriam: Rima Drell Reck (1933-1997)." The French Review 1999 73(1):9. [The article lists Richard C. Collin as the author.] [Review of] "Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World," International History Review 2002 24(1):229-231.