Dan Frank, longtime editorial director at Pantheon Books, died on May 24. He was 67.
Frank joined Pantheon in 1991 as v-p and senior editor and was named editorial director in 1996. During his 30 years with Pantheon, he established it as a leading publisher of narrative science, world literature, contemporary fiction, and graphic novels. Authors published under him were awarded two Pulitzer Prizes, several National Book Awards, numerous NBCC awards and multiple Eisners.
His authors included Charles Baxter, Madison Smartt Bell, Alain de Botton, David Eagleman, Gretel Ehrlich, Joseph J. Ellis, James Fallows, James Gleick, Jonathan Haidt, Richard Holmes, Susan Jacoby, Ben Katchor, Daniel Kehlmann, Jill Lepore, Alan Lightman, Tom Mallon, Joseph Mitchell, Maria Popova, Oliver Sacks, Art Spiegelman and many, many others.
Reagan Arthur, executive v-p and publisher of Knopf Pantheon Schocken, commented: "For decades, Dan has been the public face of Pantheon, setting the tone for the house and overseeing the list. He had an insatiable curiosity about life and, indeed, that curiosity informed many of his acquisitions. As important as the books he published and the authors he edited, Dan served as a mentor to younger colleagues, endlessly generous with his time and expertise. Famously soft-spoken, a 'writer's editor,' and in possession of a heartfelt laugh that would echo around the thirteenth floor, he was so identified with the imprint that some of his writers took to calling the place Dantheon."