Daniel Halpern (born September 11, 1945) is the founder of
Ecco Press
Ecco is a New York-based publishing imprint of HarperCollins. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company; Publishers Weekly described it as "one of America's best-known literary houses." In 1999 Ecco was acquire ...
, an imprint of the publisher
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
. He is also the author of nine books of poetry, as well as the co-founder, along with
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
, of the literary magazine ''
Antaeus
Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part ...
'', which he edited for 25 years.
Education
Daniel Halpern studied at
San Francisco State College
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
in the 1960s. He also attended California State at Northridge and received an MFA from Columbia University.
Career
In 1970, Halpern co-founded with the author Paul Bowles, the literary magazine ''Antaeus.'' Halpern had met Bowles at a party at
California State Northridge when he was asked to drive the writer home, whereupon Bowles asked Halpern if he wanted to start a magazine. Halpern soon moved to
Tangier, Morocco
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the ca ...
and launched ''Antaeus''.
Two years later, Halpern moved back to the United States. ''Antaeus'' was low on funds, and
Drue Heinz, an heiress of
Heinz Ketchup
Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a brand of ketchup manufactured by the H. J. Heinz Company, a division of the Kraft Heinz Company.
History
It was first marketed as " catsup" in 1876 In 1907, manufacturing reached 12 million bottles and it was expo ...
, met with Halpern after corresponding through letters. Halpern and Heinz met in New York, and Heinz agreed to finance the magazine on the condition that Halpern run a literary press that she had wanted to start. Halpern agreed, and Ecco was created. The name was taken from Heinz's favorite dog.
Heinz was publisher of Ecco Press, and Halpern editor-in-chief, until 1991, when Heinz retired, transferring ownership and control to Halpern.
When Ecco began, in the 1970s, Halpern and Ecco's primary focus was on acquiring rights to backlist titles, as these books were the only ones Halpern and Ecco could afford. Because many publishers did not recognize the value of backlist books at the time, Ecco was able to acquire rights for very little money, including to ''
The Sheltering Sky
''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles.
Plot
The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'' by Paul Bowles for $100. Ecco also acquired rights to
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...
’s paperback books,
Tobias Wolff
Tobias is the transliteration of the Greek which is a translation of the Hebrew biblical name he, טוֹבִיה, Toviyah, JahGod is good, label=none. With the biblical Book of Tobias being present in the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha of the Bible, T ...
’s first book of short stories, and many others.
In 1999, Ecco was sold to HarperCollins, and shortly thereafter, Halpern and Ecco acquired paperback rights for $100,000 to
Anthony Bourdain’s ''
Kitchen Confidential'', the author then a largely unknown chef. The book went on to become a bestseller, catapulting Bourdain to fame, as well as making Ecco a major name in book publishing.
As of January 2020, Halpern is president and publisher of Ecco.
Teaching
Halpern taught in the graduate writing program of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
from 1975 to 1995. Additionally, he chaired the program for many years. Halpern has also taught at
The New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...
and at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. Halpern is often referred to as the Bob Ross of Publishing.
Works
Halpern has authored nine collections of poetry and is the editor of more than 15 books and anthologies.
Honors
Halpern has been the recipient of many grants and awards, including fellowships from the
Guggenheim Foundation and the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
. In 1993, he received the PEN Publisher Citation. In 2009, he received the first Editor's Award, given by ''
Poets and Writers.'' And in 2015, he received the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction from the
Center for Fiction
The Center for Fiction, originally called the New York Mercantile Library, is a not-for-profit organization in New York City, with offices at 15 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Prior to their move in early 2018, The Center for Fiction ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halpern, Daniel
1945 births
American publishing chief executives
American poets
San Francisco State University alumni
Living people