Daniel Haberman


Daniel Haberman was an American poet, translator and graphic designer. Haberman was instrumental in founding the American Poets' Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and was the Cathedral's first Poet-in-Residence, from 1983 to 1986. In 1988 he and his wife, pianist Barbara Nissman, moved from New York to a farm in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, where he lived until his death.

Early life and education

Haberman was born in New York City in 1933, the son of Benjamin Haberman, a typesetter, and his wife Sadie Ballin. He attended the Walden School, Carnegie Mellon University, and the graduate school of New York University. He was educated in the second-hand bookshops of Manhattan and by two years of study with Edward Dahlberg.

Poet

Haberman published two volumes of poetry in his lifetime, Poems and The Furtive Wall, the latter with etchings by Jan Stussy. A collection of his verse, The Lug of Days to Come, with a foreword by Guy Davenport, was released posthumously.
Three of Haberman's poems appeared in the Spring 1984 issue of Southern Review.
Composer Irina Dubkova wrote a song-cycle titled The Lug of Days to Come, setting to music six of Haberman's poems.

Translator

Haberman's translations of Archilochus, Erinna, Praxilla, Antipater of Sidon, Zenobius, and Gaetulicus were done in collaboration with Marylin B. Arthur. Their translation of "Erinna's Lament to Baucis" was published in 1993 in The Norton Book of Classical Literature, edited by Bernard Knox, and in The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present, published in 2009 by Norton and edited by Peter Constantine, Rachel Hadas, Edmund Keeley & Karen Van Dyck.

Graphic designer

Haberman designed 16 editions of Shakespeare; his edition of The Tempest was named by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the fifty best books of 1972.

American Poets' Corner

In 1983 Haberman was asked to create an American Poets' Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and was the Cathedral's first Poet-in-Residence. He personally raised $20,000 for the engraving of the wall and monuments to the first writers elected for induction.
The "Service of Dedication" of the American Poets' Corner took place on May 7, 1984, and featured such diverse talents as Edgar Bowers, Walter Cronkite, Zubin Mehta, Barbara Nissman, Gregory Peck, Michael Tree, Rosalyn Tureck, Robert Penn Warren, and Paul Winter.
While serving as Poet-in Residence, Haberman drew up the original set of 13 Electors to the Poets' Corner, inviting the poets Daniel Aaron, Edgar Bowers, Joseph Brodsky, J.V. Cunningham, Guy Davenport, Anthony Hecht, John Hollander, Josephine Miles, Ann Stanford, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wilbur to be part of the voting to select two American poets to be honored every year. Marie Bullock, founder/president of the Academy of American Poets, accepted the position of honorary chairman; Lyn Chase, a vice president of the academy and a trustee of the cathedral, became an elector ex officio.
Haberman was succeeded as Poet-in-Residence in May 1986 by William Jay Smith, and continued to serve as an Elector of the American Poets' Corner until his death in 1991.