David Hirshey is an American book editor and a contributing editor at ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

.'' The senior vice president and executive editor of

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 Cor ...

from 1998-2016, he was previously an editor for the ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

''. Among others, he has worked with authors including

Richard Ben Cramer Richard Ben Cramer (June 12, 1950 – January 7, 2013) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1979 for his coverage of the Middle East. Biography Cramer was born and r ...

Frederick Exley Frederick Earl "Fred" Exley (March 28, 1929 – June 17, 1992)Bruce Lambert''New York Times'', June 18, 1992. was an American writer. His fictional memoir '' A Fan's Notes'' received critical acclaim and awards. He followed it up with two more ...

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel '' The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, '' Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and t ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

and

David Halberstam David Halberstam (April 10, 1934 April 23, 2007) was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, Korean War, and later ...

. Hirshey wrote the weekly soccer column "Kicking and Screaming" for ESPN.com from 2010-2017. In 2018, he became Writer-at-Large for the soccer magazine ''Eight by Eight.'' An expert on soccer, Hirshey co-wrote ''The ESPN World Cup Companion: Everything You Need To Know About The Planet's Biggest Sports Event'' and appeared in the 2006 documentary '' Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos''. He has written extensively on the sport for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Deadspin ''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media. ''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries of ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

.''

Early life and education

Hirshey was born in New York City. His father, Max Hirshey, was the president of Swarovski Crystal US and a former youth international soccer player, and his mother, Mara Hirshey, was a writer. David Hirshey graduated with a BA in English from Dickinson College, where he played varsity soccer for four years and wrote a weekly sports column for the student newspaper.

Career

Following his graduation, Hirshey was hired as a reporter at ''

The New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', where, at 21, he was the youngest sportswriter in New York. In addition to major sporting events, Hirshey covered soccer, and in 1975 broke the story that Pelé was coming to New York to play for the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independe ...

. Five of his articles over the course of his tenure at ''The New York Daily News'' were anthologized in Houghton Mifflin's annual ''Best Sports Stories of the Year.''In 1978, Hirshey was named editor of the paper's ''Sunday News Magazine.'' In that position, he worked with writers including

Jimmy Breslin James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...

and

Pete Hamill Pete Hamill (born William Peter Hamill; June 24, 1935August 5, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and editor. During his career as a New York City journalist, he was described as "the author of columns that sought to capture th ...

. Hirshey was hired as a senior editor for ''Esquire'' in 1984 and promoted to articles editor in 1986. At ''Esquire'' Hirshey worked closely with writers such as Frederick Exley, Richard Ford,

, and

Tom Robbins Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1932) is a best-selling and prolific American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy drama"), such as ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues''. Tom Robbins has lived in La Conner, ...

, among others. He edited Richard Ben Cramer's 1986 profile of

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 ...

, regarded as "one of the greatest pieces of sportswriting ever." From 1991 through 1997, Hirshey was the deputy editor of ''Esquire''. In addition to editing long form pieces in the magazine, he oversaw the annual "Dubious Achievement" issue, which was described by ''

'' as "hands down, the funniest year end issue of them all." After leaving ''Esquire,'' Hirshey was hired as an editor at the ''New Yorker'', where he assigned, developed and edited articles on future trends in politics, science, business, entertainment, culminating with "The Next Issue." In 1998, he was named executive editor and vice president of HarperCollins Publishers. Promoted to senior vice president and executive editor in 2007, Hirshey specializes in politics, current affairs, sports, memoir, pop culture, and humor. Among other award-winning and bestselling books, Hirshey acquired and edited Jane Leavy's ''Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy,''

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...

's ''The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee'', Dan Barry's ''Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game'', which won the 2013

Pen Award This is a list of awards sponsored by International PEN centres. There are over 145 PEN centres on the world, some of which hold annual literary awards. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" literary awar ...

for literary sportswriting, and

Allen Kurzweil Allen Kurzweil (born December 16, 1960) is an American novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of four works of fiction, most notably ''A Case of Curiosities'', as well as a memoir ''Whipping Boy''. He is also the co-inventor ...

's '' Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully'', the 2016

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

winner for best crime non-fiction. In May 2016, Hirshey announced that he would leave HarperCollins to relocate to Los Angeles. In late 2016 he was named a contributing editor at ''Esquire.''

Bibliography

Selected bibliography as editor

* Jane Leavy (2002), ''Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy'', HarperCollins, *Jane Leavy (2010), ''The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood,'' HarperCollins, * Dan Barry (2012), ''Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game'', HarperCollins, *Dan Barry (2016), ''The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland'',HarperCollins, *

Seymour M. Hersh Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received t ...

(2004), ''Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib'', HarperCollins, *

Michael Finkel Michael Finkel (born 1969) is a journalist and memoirist, who has written the books ''True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa'' (2005) and ''The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit'' (2017). Career Finkel was a wri ...

(2005), ''True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa'', HarperCollins, * Will Blythe (2006), ''To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever,'' Harper Collins, *Jeff MacGregor (2005), ''Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! a Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR'', HarperCollins, *

George Tenet George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the P ...

(2007), ''At The Center of The Storm: My Years at the CIA'', HarperCollins, *

(2012), ''The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee'', HarperCollins, *

Robert Kolker Robert Kolker is an American journalist who worked as a contributing editor at ''New York Magazine'' and a former projects and investigations reporter for Bloomberg News and ''Bloomberg Businessweek''. He is the author of ''Lost Girls'', a ''Ne ...

(2013), ''Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery'', HarperCollins, *Scott Saul (2014), ''Becoming Richard Pryor'', HarperCollins, *

Jeff Passan Jeffrey Scott Passan (born September 21, 1980) is an American baseball columnist with ESPN and author of ''New York Times'' Best Seller ''The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports''. He is also co-author ...

(2016), ''The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports'', HarperCollins, *

Ariel Leve Ariel S. Leve (born January 24, 1968) is an American author and award-winning journalist. She was a columnist for ''The Guardian'' and subsequently for the ''Sunday Times Magazine''. Her memoir '' An Abbreviated Life'' was published by HarperCol ...

(2016), ''An Abbreviated Life: A Memoir'', HarperCollins, *

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...

(2012), ''Who I Am: A Memoir'', HarperCollins, *

Scott Raab Scott Raab (born March 21, 1952) is an American nonfiction author and former contributing journalist for '' Esquire''. Early years Scott Raab was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1952. The Raab family relocated to Los Angeles in 1960, but after his pa ...

(2011), ''The Whore of Akron: One Man's Search for the Soul of LeBron James'', HarperCollins, *

Nate Jackson Nathan Ross Jackson (born June 4, 1979) is a writer and former American football tight end. Undrafted out of Menlo College in 2002, he spent most of his professional career with the Denver Broncos from 2003 to 2008 before injury problems ended ...

(2013), ''Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile'', HarperCollins, *

(2015), ''Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year- Old Bully'', HarperCollins, *

Jason Zinoman Jason Zinoman (born 1975 or 1976) is an American critic and author. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''Time Out New York'', '' Vanity Fair'', and ''Slate''. In 2011, he published ''Shock Value'', a non-fiction book about horror films. ...

(2017) ''Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night'' HarperCollins,

Bibliography as co-author

*Bodo, Peter & David Hirshey with

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

(1977), ''Pele's New World'',

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada *Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

, * Messing, Shep & David Hirshey (1978), ''The Education of An American Soccer Player'',

Dodd, Mead and Company Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. History Origins In 1839, Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Ta ...

, *Hirshey, David and Roger Bennett (2010) ''The ESPN World Cup Companion: Everything You Need to Know About the Planet's Biggest Sports Event,'' ESPN,

Filmography

*'' Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos'' (2006)

References

External links

Kicking and Screaming
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirshey, David Dickinson College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)