Richard Oliver Collin graduated from Canisius University in Buffalo, New York in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in classical languages and history.
He began graduate school at Harvard University but was called into active duty in the United States Army.
[3] Collin wrote several works about international affairs, including The De Lorenzo Gambit: The Italian Coup Manqué of 1974 (1975)[4] and The Blunt Instruments: Italy and the Police (1985).
[7] He also wrote the historical romance novel Contessa (1994), about the relationship between a peasant woman and an aristocrat during the rise of Mussolini.
Publishers Weekly praised the novel's historical accuracy but wrote that Collins' lack of understanding of "human relations or emotional truths" made its story fall flat.