The Sims Memorial Library unveiled their newest book additions, donated from the late Richard Collin on Thursday, Oct.13. Collin is best known for his work as the first legitimate food critic in New Orleans, according to Michael Ledet, who sits on the Friends of Sims Library Executive Board and was Collin’s best friend for 45 years until he passed away in 2010.

“It was through Michael and another friend, Phyllis Mayronne, both of whom were the executors of Collin’s will, that it was arranged for most of his library collection to come to Southeastern,” said Sims Memorial Library Director Eric Johnson.

The restaurant guide “The New Orleans Underground Gourmet” got Collin noticed in the New Orleans restaurant scene and he was soon hired as the official restaurant critic for the New Orleans evening newspaper, “The States-Item.” Throughout his career, Collin published several books, including a cookbook written with his wife Rima Collin, which has become a New Orleans classic. Collin was also a professor of history at the University of New Orleans, where Ledet met him as his history teacher in the late 60s.

The collection given to Southeastern includes more than 4,000 books ranging in topics including art, philosophy, history and culture.

“Before he passed, we had to decide what to do with his books, close to 14,000, and when I explained how needy Sims Library was he decided to let them come here,” Ledet said.

“The New Orleans Cookbook,” published in 1975 still survives in print today. It was highly popular in 2006, when people began restocking their kitchens after Hurricane Katrina. He also published a memoir after his wife’s death, “Travels with Rima,” in 2002. As well as a food critic, he was a Theodore Roosevelt scholar and authored books on the former president, including “Theodore Roosevelt’s Caribbean” and “Theodore Roosevelt’s Culture, Diplomacy, and Expansion,” both of which are on display in the library.

The donation will help fill in holes in the library’s selection of books and will strongly augment the library’s history, art and pop culture materials, according to Johnson.

“We are delighted with the donation, and honored to be chosen to receive this gift,” said Johnson. “Once the items are cataloged into the collection, which will take some time, students and faculty will have access to the books, most of which were not already in Sims Library’s collection and, which therefore, fill in some gaps.”    

According to Johnson, it will take a year to catalogue the books, valued at approximately $100,000, into the library system.  

Where the Banned Books display once stood on the first floor of the library now stands a display which includes samples from the collection and an overview of Collin’s life, career and interests to commemorate the donation. Artist Jerry Hymel created a stained glass piece, entitled “Chaos of a Collector,” which depicts stylized books in Collin’s honor.

“I never had the pleasure of meeting Dick Collin,” said Johnson. “But after spending time on three separate occasions with some very special people who were longtime friends of his, hearing their many stories and discovering his likes and dislikes through his book collection, I felt as though I knew him very well. He was a one-of-a-kind individual, an intellectual, collector, food writer, critic, world traveler and self-styled hedonist. To his friends he was loyal, warm and generous.”