Collection Guide
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Collins (Bessie F.) Collection
USDSC.017
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Contributing Institution:
University of San Diego Special Collections
Title: Guide to the Bessie F. Collins collection
Creator:
Collins, Bessie Friedman
Identifier/Call Number: USDSC.017
Physical Description:
2 Linear Feet
2 records center boxes
Date (inclusive): 1938-1983
Date (bulk): undated
Language of Material:
English .
Abstract: Bessie F. Collins was a freelance
writer, poet, and essayist who lived in the San Diego area from the 1970s through the
early-1980s. The collection consists of her published and unpublished poems, essays, and
plays as well as newspaper clippings and awards associated with those works.
Bessie F. Collins was born Elizabeth "Bessie" Friedman on December 24, 1905, in Russia. She
immigrated with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1907. Collins began writing at
the age of nine and had her first work published by age fifteen. In 1932, she married Samuel
A. Collins, a mechanical engineer, and had a son named David in 1937. The family lived in
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Santa Monica, California before moving to San Diego in the
early-1970s. In Delaware, Collins was a member of the Wilmington Drama League where she
acted in small roles and submitted her own plays for performance. In the early 1960s,
Collins entered a poem into a radio contest titled, "Second Honeymoon," that won she and her
husband a second honeymoon to Bermuda.
Collins submitted her writings to several national and international contests from the
1940s through the 1970s earning multiple awards and honorable mentions. Her works were
published in magazines, newspapers, and literary compilations. She was an active member of
the National League of American Pen Women and the California Federation of Chapparal Poets.
In the 1970s, she began to give lectures on freelance writing and compose travel articles
which she continued to do into the early-1980s. Collins died on October 26, 1988, in
Ventura, California.
Source: Ancestry.com and Bessie F. Collins collection
This collection consists of published and unpublished poems, essays, and articles as well
as manuscripts of plays for children, adolescents, and adults. Newspaper clippings, awards,
and letter, related to events, publishing, and successful contest submissions are included
with handwritten notes or acknowledgements from Collins. The contest submission records are
separated by first prize and honorable mentions or non-first prizes. The collection also
includes original copies of magazines her essays or poems were published in the 1970s, such
as Modern Maternity, and correspondence to and from admirers and friends.
This collection is open for research.
The Bessie F. Collins collection is the physical property of the University of San Diego,
Archives and Special Collections. Copyright, except in cases where material has passed into
the public domain, belongs to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns.
[Folder Title], Box # Folder #, Bessie F. Collins collection, Copley Library, University of
San Diego, Archives and Special Collections.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
There is currently no acquisition information for this collection.
This collection was processed by Shavonne Munnlyn in 2022.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women authors
Women poets
San
Diego (Calif.)
Manuscripts