Paul Collins (American writer)

This article is about an American writer. For an Australian one, see Paul Collins (fantasy writer).

Paul Collins (right)

Paul Collins (born 1969, Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania) is an American writer, editor and assistant professor of English at Portland State University. He is best known for his work with McSweeney's and The Believer, as editor of the Collins Library imprint for McSweeney's Books, and for his appearances on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon. His own books deal primarily with quirky forgotten figures from history, sometimes interwoven with memoir. Damian Kulash of the band OK Go has stated that the chapter in Collins' book "Banvard's Folly" about Augustus Pleasonton's patent on blue light led to them naming their third album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.

Collins is the parent of an autistic child and is known for his writings on the subject of autism. His book on the subject, Not Even Wrong, was adapted by Oliver Goldstick into the play Wild Boy.

He is a graduate of the University of California, Davis and College of William and Mary. He is married to the children's author and illustrator Jennifer Elder.

Books

• Community Writing: Researching Social Issues Through Composition (Erlbaum, 2001) ISBN 0-8058-3834-1
• Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck (Picador USA, 2001) ISBN 0-312-26886-6
• Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books (Bloomsbury, 2003) ISBN 1-58234-284-9
• Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism (Bloomsbury, 2004) ISBN 1-58234-367-5
• The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine (Bloomsbury, 2005) ISBN 1-58234-502-3
• The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World (Bloomsbury, 2009) ISBN 1-59691-195-6
• The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars (Crown, 2011) ISBN 978-0307592200

The Collins Library

1. English as She Is Spoke, by José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino (1855) (McSweeney's, 2002) ISBN 0-9719047-4-X
2. To Ruhleben—And Back, by Geoffrey Pike (1916) (McSweeney's, 2003) ISBN 0-9719047-8-2
3. Lady into Fox, by David Garnett (1922) (McSweeney's, 2004) ISBN 1-932416-05-6
4. The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, by Harry Stephen Keeler (1934) (McSweeney's, 2005) ISBN 1-932416-26-9
5. The Lunatic at Large, by J. Storer Clouston (1899) (McSweeney's, 2007) ISBN 1-932416-70-6
6. Curious Men, by Frank Buckland (McSweeney's, 2008) ISBN 1-934781-20-7
7. The Rector and the Rogue, by W.A. Swanberg (McSweeney's, 2011) ISBN 1-936365-23-5

Foreword

• Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office, by Cabinet Magazine and David Greenberg (Basic Books, 2006) ISBN 0-46503266-4
• "How to Do Nothing With Nobody All Alone By Yourself", by Robert Paul Smith (1958) (Tin House Books, 2010) ISBN 9-78098205-395-9

External links

• Author's Website
• Portland State University faculty profile
• Identity Theory interview