Editor and literary agent Will Murphy died of a heart attack on February 1 at his home in New York City. He was 57.
At the time of his death, Murphy was an agent specializing in nonfiction at Folio Literary Management, which he joined in September 2021. In a post on its website, Folio wrote, “Will was a valued member of our team, and his presence, brilliance, and contributions will be greatly missed by all who worked with him.”
Murphy spent the bulk of his career as an editor. After working at the University of California Press and University of Minnesota Press, in 1999 he joined Random House, where he was a senior editor for the Modern Library imprint. In 2007, Murphy moved to the Random House imprint where he was named executive editor.
In a 2008 profile in PW, Murphy said he was always “drawn to books that change the way I think, or change the way I feel, or change the way I think and feel.”
Those were the types of books he published at Random House. At the time of the PW interview, he had already edited American Vertigo: Traveling America In the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Lévy, Fear: Anti-Semitism After Auschwitz: An Essay in History Interpretation by Jan Gross, The Rising Tide: A Novel of the Second World War by Jeff Shaara, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo. He was looking forward to publishing a new work by Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence.
In a post on X, Lévy wrote: “I am deeply shaken by the news of the passing of this great young American editor. He was among the very first to place his trust in me in the United States. I owe him more than I can ever express. Profound sorrow and heavy heart.”
A funeral service is set for February 11 at 3:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, located at Park Ave. and 84th St in New York City. A reception will be held from 4:00–6:00 p.m. in St. Ignatius Wallace Hall. All are welcome.
