Frederick Hetzel, 73
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 9/29/2003
Frederick A. Hetzel, former director of the University of Pittsburgh Press, died of complications from rheumatic arthritis September 13. He was 73. Before joining the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1961, Hetzel was an associate editor at the Institute for Early American History and Culture. Hetzel took over as director in 1964 and is credited with not only increasing the size of UPP's list from 20 books a year then to roughly 50 a year today, but also with bringing national attention and literary distinction to the press. In 1981 he established the Drue Heinz Literary prize, a $15,000 award for short fiction as well as the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, a $5,000 award for poetry. Both awards include publication by the press. While Hetzel often noted that he did not read poetry himself, under his direction UPP became one of the largest publishers of poetry in the U.S. He retired from the press in 1994.
