Sterling Lord Dies: Literary Agent For Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' Was 102

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Sterling Lord Dies: Literary Agent For Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ Was 102

Bruce Haring - Yesterday 5:38 PM

Sterling Lord, who represented Jimmy Breslin, Art Buchwald, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gordon Parks and most famously, Jack Kerouac, died Saturday in Ocala, Fla. He was 102 and his death was confirmed by his daughter, Rebecca Lord. No cause was given.

The list of literary greats represented by Lord over his long career included Frank Deford, David Wise, Nicolas Pileggi, Delores Kearns Goodwin, Joe McGinniss, Pete Gent, Pete Axthelm, and more. But it was Kerouac’s book that is likely his lasting legacy, sold for $1,000 after four years of trying. It went on to sell more than five million copies.

Lord was born in Burlington, Iowa, on Sept. 3, 1920. His father was an amateur bookbinder and nourished his son’s passion for books. Oddly, Lord himself publilshed only two works, a how-to on tennis and a memoir, neither of them massive sellers.

He graduated with an English degree fro Grinnell College in Iowa, then joined the Army and was sent to Europe near the end of World War II. He helped edit the weekly magazine of the military publication Stars and Stripes, briefly taking it private when the Army stopped publication in 1948. ,When the magazine closed in 1949, he moved to New York. ... Lord worked at several magazines, including True and Cosmopolitan, before becoming a literary agent. His tastes were eclectic, and he was known to bring in large advances for his roster.

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1. Sterling Lord, Premier Literary Agent, Is Dead at 102

Sterling Lord, Premier Literary Agent, Is Dead at 102

The list of well-known writers he represented is long. But his success began with an unknown named Jack Kerouac and his hard-to-sell novel “On the Road.”

By David Margolick
Sept. 4, 2022

About 10 years ago Sterling Lord invited four long-term clients of his for lunch at the Regency Hotel in New York. As a matter of longevity, at least, it’s pretty safe to say that no other literary agent anywhere at any time could have assembled such a group.

Mr. Lord had represented one of them, the sportswriter Frank Deford, for 53 years, and another, the investigative reporter and sometime novelist David Wise, for more than 60. A third author on hand that day, the writer Nicholas Pileggi, had been a client for at least 50 years. The baby in the group was the political analyst Jeff Greenfield. Mr. Lord had represented him for a mere 44 years. All told, when they toasted Mr. Lord that afternoon, it was for more than two centuries of representation.

“It was an amazing moment,” recalled Mr. Pileggi, the author of “Wise Guy,” a book for which Mr. Lord hatched the idea, and which Martin Scorsese adapted for the 1990 movie “Goodfellas.” “Here we were, all at an advanced age, and we were still the kids Sterling was helping.”

For Mr. Lord, who died on Saturday — his 102nd birthday — in Ocala, Fla., such steadfastness was standard. For more than 60 years he was one of New York’s most successful and durable literary agents, representing Jimmy Breslin, Art Buchwald, Willie Morris, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Howard Fast, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gordon Parks, Edward M. Kennedy, Robert S. McNamara and the Berenstain Bears, among many others.

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