Andrew Wylie (literary agent)

Wylie is the son of Craig Wylie (1908–1976), one-time editor-in-chief at Houghton Mifflin, and Angela (1915–1989), daughter of the landscape architect and artist Robert Ludlow Fowler, Jr, of Oatlands, New York[1][2][3][4] (son of judge Robert Ludlow Fowler, author of many legal texts).[5][6][7][8] His grandfather, Yale-educated lawyer Horace Wylie, left his wife and children to marry the poet and novelist Elinor (née Hoyt), then Mrs Philip Simmons Hichborn, 17 years his junior, causing a scandal; Horace was son of the federal judge Andrew Wylie and grandson of Rev. Andrew Wylie, first President of Indiana University.[9]

Wylie grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, from which he was dismissed in 1965; an interview with his university alumni magazine stated that this was for arranging illicit excursions to Boston for fellow students and supplying them, illegally, with alcohol.[10]

In 1972, Wylie published a short collection of poetry, Yellow Flowers. Many of the verses cited in public sources are sexually explicit in nature. In a 2007 interview, fellow agent Ira Silverberg suggested that Wylie has since attempted to acquire the remaining copies of the collection.[11] Wylie himself denied this allegation, describing Yellow Flowers as a "youthful indiscretion".[12]

Wylie founded the literary agency named after him in New York in 1980. He opened a second office in London in 1996.[10] It now represents more than 1,000 clients and literary estates. For his business tactics, Wylie has been nicknamed "The Jackal".[13]

Wylie's clients[14] include:

Throughout his career as a literary agent, Wylie has attracted attention for poaching clients from other agents.[5] In 1995 Martin Amis left his agent of 22 years, Pat Kavanagh, for Wylie, who was reported to have secured an advance of £500,000 for Amis's novel The Information.[10]

In July 2010, Wylie launched a new business, Odyssey Editions, to publish e-books. The first twenty titles were launched on 21 July, available exclusively from Amazon.com. Wylie's friendly attitude towards Amazon was short-lived, however; in 2014 he advised: "If you have a choice between the plague and Amazon, pick the plague." He later went on to liken Amazon's tactics to those of the Islamic State.[17]

• Corporate website
• Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie Collection at the Harry Ransom Center