Timothy Seldes has died. He was 88 years old.
The New York Times reports that Seldes devoted four decades to a career as a literary agent. He represented several high-profile authors including Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Tyler, Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, and The Paris Review co-founder George Plimpton.
Here’s more from The Washington Post: “In 1972, he bought one of New York’s most prestigious literary agencies, Russell & Volkening, which was founded in 1940 by Diarmuid Russell and Henry Volkening. Over the next 40 years, Mr. Seldes kept the agency’s original name, even though he was its principal agent and sole owner. He specialized in high-end fiction and literary nonfiction, acquiring many books that became bestsellers and canonical works of literature.” (via The Hollywood Reporter)
(Image by Richard Allnut)