Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction

McGrath, an English professor at Temple University, debuts with an enlightening study of how agents have shaped the American literary landscape. Through archival research and original interviews, McGrath reveals how literary agents have served as behind-the-scenes tastemakers, deciding which authors to represent and how an author’s work is presented to publishers. Anecdotes from well-known agents like Sterling Lord, Lynn Nesbit, and Candida Donadio demonstrate how agents turned the debut novel into a major publishing event, helped the short story collection persist despite poor sales, and fostered relationships with prominent editors over three-martini lunches. McGrath also calls attention to surveys showing that, as in other publishing professions, most literary agents are white, and they tend to represent authors who look like themselves (“One answer to the perennial question ‘Why is contemporary literature so white?’ is because agents are”). She highlights the work of agents of color like Marie Brown, who shepherded Black writers through the industry between the 1960s and 2024. The focus is almost exclusively on literary fiction, leaving readers to wonder about the machinations behind more commercial books. Nevertheless, McGrath’s research is extremely thorough and presented in entertaining prose. Anyone curious about how their favorite books came to be will appreciate this peek behind the curtain. (Apr.)