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Larry Collins

Author profile

born

September 14, 1929 in Hartford, Connecticut, The United States

died

June 20, 2005

gender

male

About this author

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Born in West Hartford, Connecticut, he was educated at the Loomis Chaffee Institute in Windsor, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale as a BA in 1951. He worked in the advertising department of Procter and Gamble, in Cincinnati, Ohio, before being conscripted into the US Army. While serving in the public affairs office of the Allied Headquarters in Paris, from 1953-1955, he met Dominique Lapierre with whom he would write several best-sellers over 43 years.

He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the...more Born in West Hartford, Connecticut, he was educated at the Loomis Chaffee Institute in Windsor, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale as a BA in 1951. He worked in the advertising department of Procter and Gamble, in Cincinnati, Ohio, before being conscripted into the US Army. While serving in the public affairs office of the Allied Headquarters in Paris, from 1953-1955, he met Dominique Lapierre with whom he would write several best-sellers over 43 years.

He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the MidEast bureau chief in Beirut.

In 1959, he joined Newsweek as Middle East editor, based in New York. He became the Paris bureau chief in 1961, where he would work until 1964, until he switched to writing books.

In 1965, Collins and Lapierre published their first joint work, Is Paris Burning? (in French Paris brûle-t-il?), a tale of Nazi occupation of the French capital during World War II and Hitler's plans to destroy Paris should it fall into the hands of the Allies. The book was an instant success and was made into a movie in 1966 by director René Clément, starring Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford and Alain Delon.

In 1967, they co-authored Or I'll Dress you in Mourning about the Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.

In 1972, after five years' research and interviews, they published O Jerusalem! about the birth of Israel in 1948, turned into a movie by Elie Chouraqui.

In 1975, they published Freedom at Midnight, a story of the Indian Independence in 1947, and the subsequent assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is said they spent $300,000 researching and still emerged wealthy.

The duo published their first fictional work, The Fifth Horseman, in 1981. It describes a terrorist attack on New York masterminded by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. The book had such a shocking effect that the French President cancelled the sale of nuclear reactors to Libya, even though it was meant for peaceful purposes. Paramount Pictures, which was planning a film based on the book, dropped the idea in fear that fanatics would emulate the scenario in real life.

In 1985, Collins authored Fall From Grace (without Lapierre) about a woman agent sent into occupied France who realizes she may be betrayed by her British masters if necessary. He also wrote Maze: A Novel (1989), Black Eagles (1995), Le Jour Du Miracle: D-Day Paris (1994) and Tomorrow Belongs To Us (1998). Shortly before his death, he collaborated with Lapierre on Is New York Burning? (2005), a novel mixing fictional characters and real-life figures that speculates about a terrorist attack on New York City.

In 2005, while working from his home in the south of France on a book on the Middle East, Collins died of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.

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Average rating: 4.12 · 2,878 ratings · 320 reviews · 23 distinct works

	Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 4.27 avg rating — 1,101 ratings — published 1975 — 24 editions	My rating:
	Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 4.08 avg rating — 579 ratings — published 1964 — 8 editions	My rating:
	O Jerusalem by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 4.27 avg rating — 631 ratings — published 1970 — 24 editions	My rating:
	Fifth Horseman by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 3.75 avg rating — 208 ratings — published 1980 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Or I'll Dress You in Mourning: The Story of El Cordobes and the New Spain He Stands For by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 4.31 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 1968 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Is New York Burning? by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre 2.70 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 1973 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Fall from Grace 4.13 avg rating — 38 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Road to Armageddon 3.75 avg rating — 16 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Maze 3.27 avg rating — 37 ratings — 8 editions	My rating:
	Fortitude 3.93 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1985 — 4 editions	My rating:

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Larry's Fans (7)

Larry Collins

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Larry Collins

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Larry Collins