Obits

Literary agent Esmond Harmsworth, 57, died on April 9 of natural causes while on vacation with his family in Mauritius. He founded the literary agency Zachary Shuster Harmsworth in 1997 with Lane Zachary and Todd Shuster. ZSH merged with Kuhn Projects in 2016 to form Aevitas Creative Management. As president at Aevitas, Harmsworth represented authors including Keith McFarland, Amanda Ripley, Hester Young, and Michelle Hoover. “Esmond was a consummate intellectual, a widely beloved representative of scores of authors from across the world, and an absolutely irrepressible bon vivant,” Shuster said. “Through his work as a literary agent, philanthropist, and advocate, […]

Scott Miller, executive vice president and literary agent at Trident Media Group, died on April 23 of cancer. Miller represented clients including Mark Greaney, W. Bruce Cameron,  Joel C. Rosenberg, Harry Shearer, and Pam Grier. Al Bertrand, director of Georgetown University Press, died on April 20. He joined Georgetown University Press in 2018, after roles at Princeton University Press and John Wiley & Sons in Oxford.  

Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, 89, who won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, died on Sunday in Lima. His first novel, The Time of the Hero, was published in 1963. Other works include Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The War of the End of the World, and more. He ran for president of Peru in 1990.

Lerner Publishing Group founder and chair Harry Lerner, 93, died on April 8. Lerner began his publishing career as a GI in Germany when when he published a guidebook for fellow servicemen. In 1959 he began publishing children’s books and launched the company’s first imprint, Carolrhoda Books, with his first wife, Sharon Lerner, in 1969. He ran the company until 1998, when his son Adam Lerner took over.

Journalist and author Jesse Kornbluth, 79, died on Thursday of Lewy body dementia. He was a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York, and Architectural Digest, and wrote for The New Yorker and The New York Times. He also wrote or co-wrote nine books, including the novels Married Sex and JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story. Kornbluth also founded Bookreporter.com with Carol Fitzgerald in 1996, and launched the culture site HeadButler.com. “Jesse was curious, kind, funny and brilliant,” Fitzgerald wrote in the Bookreporter newsletter. “He made my writing better; he liked ‘snappy copy.’ He could shape copy in a […]

Virginia Norey, 68, who worked in publishing for 40 years, most recently as associate director of art/design at Random House, died on March 28 of cancer. Her career began at Penguin Books in 1997, and she eventually moved to Bantam Dell. Elizabeth Rendfleisch, vp & director, RHPG design, writes, “Virginia developed the mass market design standards that grace innumerable titles to this day and created the enduring interior house styles for such luminaries as Danielle Steel, Diana Gabaldon, Lee Child, and George R. R. Martin.” She adds, “Personally, I’ll be forever grateful to Virginia for welcoming me with open arms […]