Maurice Collis

Maurice Collis was born in 1889, the son of an Irish solicitor. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1911 and was posted to Burma, rising to the position of District Magistrate of Rangoon in 1929, where the independence of his judgments displeased his superiors who moved him to the position of Excise Commissioner in 1931. He returned to England in 1934. He wrote over twenty books, including volumes of autobiography, travel writing, novels, histories and three plays. He died in 1973.

External Links

• Maurice Collis Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 August 2014
• "Blood and Spirit: Reading beyond Orwell for a glimpse of British Burma" by Amaury Lorin 30 December 2013 Myanmar Times. Retrieved 30 August 2014
• Review by George Orwell of Trials in Burma by Maurice Collis. Published anonymously by The Listener, 9 March 1938. Attribution to Orwell has been made from the journal’s record. theorwellprize.co.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2014
• Photograph: Maurice Collis by Ida Kar, 
vintage bromide print, 1960-1961 National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 30 August 2014
• Photograph: In Kyaukphru, A House Where Maurice Collis Lived panoramio.com, now archived.

Historical books online

• Autobiographies
  • Trials in Burma by Maurice Collis 1938. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. Probably the author’s most famous book on Burma, one of several volumes of autobiography, it covers the years 1928-1931, particularly his role as District Magistrate of Rangoon, and the riots of 1930.

  1996 reprint edition with "A New Introduction" by Louise Collis [daughter] Archive.org Lending Library.

• Histories
  • The Great Within 1941. The interactions of China and Europe from the seventeenth century. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
  • British Merchant Adventurers 1942. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
  • Foreign Mud - Being an Account of the Opium Imbroglio at Canton in the 1830s and the Anglo-Chinese War That Followed 1946. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
  • The Land Of The Great Image; Being Experiences of Friar Manrique in Arakan by Maurice Collis 1946 Archive.org. (A History). Sebastien Manrique was a Portuguese Augustinian missionary who spent much of the period 1629-37 in Arakan, and also visited the Philippines, China and India. His account of his travels was originally written in Spanish and published in 1649 and 1653.
• Biographies
  • Sample pages only Siamese White by Maurice Collis, first published 1936, with title Siamese White. An account of events in Siam in 1687 with special reference to Samuel White. Google Books. Samuel White was born in England about 1650. In 1875 White came on to the books of the East India Company as a pilot on the establishment of Fort. St George, Madras.
  • Marco Polo 1950. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
  • Raffles by Maurice Collis 1966 Archive.org Lending Library.
• Other
  • The Burmese Scene 1943. Full title: The Burmese Scene : Political, Historical, Pictorial. A review of the history, government and economic life of Burma. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
• Fiction
  • She Was A Queen by Maurice Collis 1937 Archive.org. (Fiction) Biography of a Burmese Queen.
  • Sanda Mala by Maurice Collis first published c 1939 in English Archive.org.