Mort Janklow, the lawyer who became a high-powered literary agent and chairman and co-founder of Janklow & Nesbit, died yesterday at age 91. As the New York Times put it, he was "the storied New York literary agent who struck megadeals with publishers for bestselling authors, ghostwritten celebrities, several presidents and a pope, and who influenced international book lists and the reading habits of millions for decades."
Among his clients were Jackie Collins, John Glenn, Al Gore, Thomas Harris, Judith Krantz, David McCullough, Michael Moore, Pope John Paul II, Sidney Poitier, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Pat Riley, Carl Sagan, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel, Ted Turner, Robert Wagner and Barbara Walters.
As the Times noted, Janklow regularly secured multimillion-dollar deals for his clients and took "commissions of 15% when most agents got 10%. But his clients received abundant rewards. The Janklovian clout often won signing bonuses and subsidiary rights for television and movie spinoffs, as well as book club and world publishing deals. He also won rights rarely given to authors: a say in advertising and promotional campaigns, even in the details of a book's cover and jacket copy."
Janklow began his career as a lawyer in 1960 and founded the firm of Janklow & Traum in 1967. His agenting career began in 1972 when, as the firm recalled, "his friend and client, William Safire, asked him to handle a book he was writing about Richard Nixon. Janklow, who knew little about the publishing industry at the time, quickly schooled himself in it. He agreed to represent Safire, securing a book contract for him almost immediately. When the Watergate scandal broke and the book's publisher, William Morrow, tried to back out of the contract, Janklow sued, ushering in a new era of authors' rights; he later sold the book to Doubleday. 'We took the publisher out of the captain's seat and put the author in it,' Janklow said. 'The publisher is replaceable; the author is not.' "
Janklow established his own literary agency in 1977. In 1989, he co-founded Janklow & Nesbit with Lynn Nesbit, who said yesterday, "Mort was a beacon of positivity and hope in an uncertain world. He radiated optimism and his clients, family, and friends were always leaning on and learning from him as a result. He was a bright light in the publishing world, devoted to his writers and passionate about our business. We will all miss him."
Janklow was a strong supporter of the arts and education. At Columbia Law School, he founded the Morton L. Janklow Program for Advocacy in the Arts and endowed the Morton L. Janklow Chair in Literary and Artistic Property Law. At Syracuse University, he served on the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors and founded the Janklow Arts Leadership Program. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations for more than four decades. He also served on many advisory boards for philanthropic institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Plans for a memorial will be announced.