Who

Formerly the head of Miramax Books, Burnham is now the publisher of HarperCollins.

Backstory

London-born Burnham cut his teeth at Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Random House in the U.K. After decamping to New York, he worked at Viking Penguin before being lured to Miramax Books, the publishing venture established by Tina Brown's Talk Media and Harvey Weinstein's Miramax. Burnham served as president and editor-in-chief of Miramax books until 2005; when it became clear that Disney, Miramax's parent company, planned to shutter the division after the Weinstein brothers' departure from the company (Disney later folded Miramax Books into its Hyperion brand), Burnham was snapped up by then-HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who made him head of the company's namesake imprint.

Of note

Over the course of his career, Burnham's helped shepherd non-fiction projects by Madeleine Albright, George Tenet, and Rudy Giuliani, as well as novels by Michael Chabon and Michael Crichton. When Burnham joined HarperCollins, there was talk that he planned to focus on acquiring more literary titles for the company. He's acquired a number high-minded tomes—such as Jonathan Littell's Les Bienveillantes ("the Kindly Ones"), a big bestseller in France—but he's been just as active on the commercial front. His first major move at HarperCollins was the acquisition of Anderson Cooper's memoir, Dispatches from the Edge, for $1 million. More recently, he appalled many when he acquired Bright Shiny Morning, the first post-Oprah literary effort of disgraced author James Frey, for a reported $2 million.

Personal

Burnham has said he moved to the U.S. "for love," and he now lives in Tribeca with his boyfriend, Fashion Wire Daily founder and ex-Star EIC Joe Dolce, and their dogs, Bumper and Drew. The couple also owns a cedar-sided Hamptons country house, which they purchased from British novelist Grace Upcher a number of years ago for $500,000.

No joke

Celeb cook Nigella Lawson roomed with Burnham at Oxford and claims to have been Burnham's beard before he came out.