Ecco
Ecco is a HarperCollins literary imprint in New York, founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as the independent Ecco Press and bought by HarperCollins in 1999, publisher of Louise Glück's The Wild Iris.
- Editions tracked
- 38
- First editions
- 25
- Books
- 38
- Years
- 1972 to 2022
About Ecco
Ecco is a New York literary imprint of HarperCollins, founded in 1971 by the editor Daniel Halpern as the independent Ecco Press, and the publisher of Louise Glück's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection The Wild Iris.
Halpern created Ecco to publish the literary magazine Antaeus, which closed in 1994. His first backer, the heiress Drue Heinz, suggested the name Ecco and in 1991 handed ownership of the press to Halpern. The early list relied heavily on reissues and paperbacks of writers such as Paul Bowles, Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski and John Fante, and the press used Viking and W. W. Norton for sales and distribution. The Wild Iris won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Halpern received the PEN Publisher's Citation in 1993. By 1999 Ecco's authors included John Ashbery, Italo Calvino, Richard Ford, Robert Hass, Czesław Miłosz, Joyce Carol Oates and Tobias Wolff.
HarperCollins announced on 17 February 1999 that it would buy Ecco, with the deal taking effect on 1 July; Halpern became editorial director of the new imprint. Under HarperCollins, Ecco published the American edition of Josh Malerman's debut novel Bird Box in 2014, after the British edition from Harper Voyager. Halpern became editor-at-large in 2020 and moved to Knopf in 2021. Ecco issues about 35 to 40 titles a year.
How to spot a Ecco first edition
We have not yet written the guide to Ecco's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Ecco marked its firsts? Tell us.
AuthorsCharles Bukowski (4)Anthony Bourdain (2)Louise Glück (2)Alissa Nutting (2)Rumaan Alam (1)Hugh Aldersey-Williams (1)Margaret Atwood (1)Michael Bar-Zohar (1)Andrew Blum (1)Duncan Clark (1)
Published by Ecco
- Ecco2004 Hardback Not yet valued I own The Falls, Ecco 2004 Log in to want this
- Ecco2010 Hardback Not yet valued I own Just Kids, Ecco 2010 Log in to want this
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify an Ecco first edition?
Check the title page and the copyright page: a Ecco first edition gives the first date of publication with no later impression or edition stated. Each book's page here lists its own points.
How many Ecco books does MyVolumes track?
We track 38 editions published by Ecco, 25 of them first editions, across 38 books.
Where these facts come from
- Ecco Press, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- HarperCollins Announces Plans to Acquire the Ecco Press, Writers Write, 1999 (writerswrite.com)
- Bird Box (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 18 October 2026.