Death of a Literary Superstar

Over at The Guardian, Clive James pays tribute to the literary agent Pat Kavanagh, who died Monday of a brain tumor. Kavanagh’s past and present clients included Martin Amis, Robert Harris, Ruth Rendell, and Jeanette Winterson. “Every literary career is different but the same principles apply,” James, a client himself, writes. “The first principle is to have principles. The writer should not expect to have junk published; the publisher should not expect to get away with publishing junk; and the agent should not expect to be praised for extracting a huge advance from the publisher for a piece of junk that will never get the advance back.” Kavanagh is survived by her husband, the novelist Julian Barnes.