On September 3, 2022, star literary agent and book enthusiast, Sterling Lord, passed away at the age of 102 in Ocala, Florida, while spending time with family.
For more than 60 years, he was a prized agent in the publishing industry, representing such big names as Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Gordon Parks, Edward M. Kennedy, Jimmy Breslin, Art Buchwald, Willie Morris, Robert S. McNamara, Amiri Baraka, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Howard Fast, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and even the Berenstain Bears, among many other writers.
Lord was born in 1920 in Iowa, and his father and uncle set him on the path to the publishing industry from a young age, as his father worked as a bookbinder and his uncle was a scientist and writer. In high school, Lord was his school’s newspaper editor, and he went on to be the editor for a weekly magazine supplement of Stars and Stripes while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.
After serving, Sterling Lord moved to New York City and officially began his work in the publishing industry, which got off to a poor start. He and his friend, Evan Jones, bought a magazine called Weekend, which failed, and he was hired and fired by Cosmopolitan magazine.
Lord found success when he started his own literary agency in 1951, where he met Jack Kerouac and decided to represent his definitive work, On the Road, which took four years to find a publisher. While seeking a publisher, Lord merged his literary agency with another called Literistic, which formed Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc, which went on to represent and publish dozens of famous names in American publishing.
He was one of the longest-standing literary agents in American publishing history, and his standards of representation remained resoundingly high throughout his career, making his list of publications almost incomparably impressive.
To honor his memory, here are several of the top literary accounts Sterling Lord worked on and the stories behind them, as well as information about his own memoir.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Penguin Classics)
Sterling Lord’s relationship with author and Beat Poet, Jack Kerouac, was likely the longest agenting relationship Lord held with a client. Shortly after Lord launched his one-man literary agency, a young Jack Kerouac came into his office with an entire novel, what would turn out to be On the Road, written on a scroll. Able to recognize its literary achievement, Lord agreed to represent Kerouac, but it then took another four years to find a publisher who was willing to take a chance on the author’s edgy novel.
Their relationship did not end there, however, as the two remained in touch. Lord even attempted to get Kerouac in touch with someone who could help him get sober, but he eventually realized he was “a literary coach, not a life coach.” Only a few years after the book was published, Lord attended the author’s funeral alongside fellow Beat Poet, Allen Ginsberg. After his death, Lord attempted to compete for rights to Kerouac’s work against Kerouac’s family and lost, and when a posthumous production of his work was presented in a way that Lord could not support, he declined his invitation.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (Viking)
While Sterling Lord was attempting to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, he met Ken Kesey, who asked for his consideration of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Lord later reflected on his deep admiration for the book, its story and the subtle descent into madness, which was the book’s leading selling point for him.
As is true for many of the works Lord represented, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was later adapted into a critically-acclaimed feature film, starring and putting on the big screen’s map, Jack Nicholson.
The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain (Random House Books for Young Readers)
Working in the publishing industry, it hardly should come as a surprise when big-name authors know each other — and certainly not when a literary agent knows a variety of household names. But there’s something about knowing that Sterling Lord was friends with Theodor Geisel, who was better known by the public as Dr. Seuss, that truly boggles and enchants the mind.
This friendship was also put to good use, for literally everyone, as Geisel was able to assist Lord in representing Stan and Jan Berenstein, the cocreators of The Berenstain Bears, whose huggable natures and quirky adventures would become nostalgic pastimes for many households.
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (Simon & Schuster)
After signing Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey, Lord became a primary target for writers who were seeking representation, which gave Lord more freedom to be selective than ever before in the books he wanted to represent — which he envisioned as ambitiously written and interestingly told.
Perhaps that was why Nicholas Pileggi’s novel, Wiseguy, drew his attention with its unique, honest and violent portrayal of life in a mafia family, written by crime reporter Pileggi and former Mafia associate turned informant, Henry Hill.
After the book’s publication, Lord assisted Pileggi further with the negotiation of rights for the film adaptation — a popular feature film and many households’ favorite, Goodfellas.
Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss
Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss (Berkley)
Perhaps the most controversial book Sterling Lord decided to take on was not Wiseguy — despite the backlash that came from unveiling Mafia secrets — but Fatal Vision, a true crime thriller by Joe McGinniss.
The book focuses on the life and story of Jeffrey MacDonald, who was accused of murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters. MacDonald vehemently denied the accusations, all the way up to the day he was charged with murder in 1979, and beyond, while carrying out three life sentences.
The MacDonald murder case remains one of the most contentious and divisive cases in American criminal history.
The Vantage Point by Lyndon B. Johnson
The Vantage Point by Lyndon B. Johnson — and Quotations from Chairman LBJ by an Author Unknown (Simon & Schuster)
The story of Sterling Lord’s relationship with former president Lyndon B. Johnson’s memoir is nearly as funny as the parody that would be a direct result of Johnson’s memoir being published.
Lord boasted of Lyndon B. Johnson’s memoir — not in the sense of admiration, but in amusement. Representatives for the former president reached out to Lord in the 1960s to inquire about his interest in representing the memoir. They bluntly told Lord that Johnson expected $1 million dollars for the book, in addition to expecting Lord to accept less than his usual agenting commission “for the honor of working with him.”
Lord proudly turned them down, and later, when The Vantage Point was published in 1971, it was met with criticism and was cited as “bland and uninformative.”
Lord was later happy to work with an anonymous author, who wrote a responding best-selling parody called, Quotations from Chairman LBJ.
The Lord of Publishing by Sterling Lord
Sterling Lord’s memoir, The Lord of Publishing (Open Road Media)
After spending most of his life in the publishing industry, Sterling Lord published a story of his own just ten years before the end of his career: a story of his leap into the publishing industry, all he had learned as a literary agent and what he valued most in books — and people.
Lord reflected, “A number of things about this business have really caught me and made it a compelling interest. First, I’m interested in good writing. Second, I am interested in new and good ideas. And third, I’ve been able to meet some extraordinarily interesting people.”
Consider this book to not only be a uniquely intimate glance into the mind of one of the industry’s top literary agents but also as an inside scoop on the publishing industry, the books Lord selected (and rejected), his love of tennis and maybe even some gossipy, witty tidbits about what it was like to work with some of the greatest authors and poets during the Beat Generation and since.
