Daniel Halpern

Daniel Halpern (born September 11, 1945) is the founder of Ecco Press, an imprint of the publisher HarperCollins. He is also the author of nine books of poetry, as well as the co-founder, along with Paul Bowles, of the literary magazine Antaeus, which he edited for 25 years.

Education Daniel Halpern studied at San Francisco State College in the 1960s. He also attended California State University, 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 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, 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.

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.

Traveling on Credit (New York: Viking Press, 1972) -- poems Street Fire (New York: Viking Press, 1975) -- poems The Lady Knife-Thrower (Binghamton, N.Y.: Bellevue Press, 1975) -- poems Life Among Other (New York: Viking Press, 1978) -- poems Seasonal Rights (New York: Viking Press, 1982) -- poems Tango (New York: Penguin Books, 1988) -- poems Foreign Neon (New York: Knopf, 1991) -- poems Selected Poems (New York: Knopf, 1994) -- poems Something Shining (New York: Knopf, 1999) -- poems

Honors Halpern has been the recipient of many grants and awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. 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.