{{Short description|American literary agent (1939–2017)}} {{Distinguish|text = Edward Victor (1887–1964), British stage magician}} {{Infobox person | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} | name = <!--Use this parameter only if the name is different from page title--> | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Edward Victor | birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|09|09|df=y}} | birth_place = New York City, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|06|07|1939|09|09|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | education = Bayside High School<br> Dartmouth College<br> Pembroke College, Cambridge | occupation = Literary agent | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Michelene Wandor|1963|1975|end=divorce}} * Carol Ryan }} | children = 3 }}
'''Edward Victor''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} (9 September 1939 – 7 June 2017) was an American-born British literary agent, based, for most of his career, in London, England.
==Early life and education== Victor was born on 9 September 1939, in Bronx, New York City. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, who ran a photographic equipment store,<ref name="Ed Victor obituary ">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/08/ed-victor-obituary |title=Ed Victor obituary |last=Barnett |first=David |access-date=9 June 2017 |work=The Guardian |publication-date=8 June 2017 }}</ref><ref name="Doherty">{{cite news|last=Doherty|first=Rosa|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/smart-charming-brilliant-ed-victor-dies-aged-78-1.439714|title='Smart, charming, brilliant' Ed Victor dies aged 78|work=The Jewish Chronicle|date=8 June 2017|access-date=8 June 2017}}</ref> he went to Bayside High School in the borough of Queens, later earning a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. After graduating, he attended Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, on a Marshall Scholarship in 1961.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk">Merritt, Stephanie, [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/mar/11/pressandpublishing.books "The Mr Big of publishing"], ''The Observer'' profile, 11 March 2007.</ref><ref name=NYT>Roberts, Sam, [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/business/media/ed-victor-dead-literary-agent.html?_r=0 "Ed Victor, a Stylish and Frenetic Book Agent, Dies at 77"], ''The New York Times'', 12 June 2017.</ref>
== Career ==
===Publishing editor=== Victor married Michelene Samuels, the writer, in 1963; the couple made their home in London and had two children. Victor worked for the Oborne Press, a publishing house, then part of Lord Beaverbrook's Express Newspapers group. He then worked on coffee table books for Weidenfeld & Nicolson. After approaching <!-- Not a peer until 1976. -->George Weidenfeld in the toilet, Victor was moved to general publishing, looking after the works of Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>
====''Ink''==== In 1970,<!-- Check, Michelene Wandor's article says 1975. --> his first marriage ended in divorce. In 1971, Victor co-founded the countercultural newspaper ''Ink''<ref>[http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Publication/ink "Ink"] at rock'sbackpages library.</ref> with ''Oz'' founders Felix Dennis and Richard Neville.<ref name=NYT /> By 1972, conflict about what ''Ink'' should be led to its failure, and Victor returned to the United States to work for Knopf.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>
===Literary agent=== Victor married his second wife, American lawyer Carol Ryan,<ref name="Doherty"/> and, after a year travelling, made their main home in London to be close to Victor's children.<ref>Barnett, David, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/31/ed-victor-an-honoured-literary-agent "Ed Victor – an honoured literary agent"], ''The Guardian'', 31 December 2015.</ref> Victor was one of the first former journalist/editors to make the move to be a publishing agent, when in the 1970s literary agents were not welcomed by British publishers. However, many changed their minds when Victor's first sale in 1976<ref>[http://www.writersservices.com/agent/uk/Ed_Victor.htm Ed Victor Ltd] at Writers Services.</ref> was for the book and film rights to Stephen Shephard's novel ''The Four Hundred'' for $1.5 million. In 2005, Victor's client John Banville won the Booker Prize. The following day Victor sold Eric Clapton's memoirs for $4 million.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>
Rather than take "blind" scripts sent to him, Victor instead began to gain clients through personal reference. He is recalled as being "the first agent to increase his commission from 10% to 15%. Few of his clients complained and over the years other agents quietly followed him....He negotiated deals for his authors that few could match."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/insight/i-work-ed-victor-766546|title='I work for Ed Victor...'|magazine=The Bookseller|date=11 April 2018|access-date=27 January 2022|first=Charlie|last=Campbell}}</ref> In 2003, Victor and his wife were named second on ''Tatler'''s list of the most invited guests in London, behind Elton John.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>
In the 2016 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=61450|supp=y|page=N10|date=30 December 2015}}</ref> In September 2016, it was reported that David Cameron had signed with Victor to write his memoirs.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Just fancy that |magazine=Private Eye |location=London |publisher=Pressdram |date= 30 September 2016}}</ref>
He celebrated the 40th anniversary of his literary agency, Ed Victor Ltd, in November 2016.<ref>Clee, Nicholas, [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/Obituary/article/73924-obituary-superagent-ed-victor-dies-at-78.html "Obituary: Superagent Ed Victor Dies at 78"], ''Publishers Weekly'', 8 June 2017.</ref>
==Personal life== With his second wife, Carol Ryan, Victor lived mainly in London, with a secondary home in the Hamptons on Long Island, in the United States. The couple had a son, Ryan, while Victor had sons, Adam and Ivan, from his first marriage to Michelene Wandor.<ref name="Ed Victor obituary "/> In 2002, Victor suffered an attack of viral pneumonia, but fully recovered.<ref name="observer.guardian.co.uk"/>
The same year,<!-- 2002. --> Victor published his first book, ''The Obvious Diet – Your Personal Way to Lose Weight Fast Without Changing Your Lifestyle'', through Ebury Press and Arcade Publishing.<ref>[http://www.arcadepub.com/author?author=7010-victor-ed "Victor, Ed"]{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at Arcade Publishing.</ref><ref>Whitfield, Fredricka, [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/15/sm.16.html "Interview With Ed Victor"], ''CNN Sunday Morning'', 15 September 2002. CNN.com – Transcripts.</ref>
Victor was vice chairman of the board of directors of the Almeida Theatre, a Trustee of the Arts Foundation<ref name="The International Who's Who 2004">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sR4Ch1dMe8IC |title=The International Who's Who 2004 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2003 |isbn=9781857432176 |volume=67 |page=1741}}</ref> and of the Hay Festival,<ref name="hayfestival">{{Cite web |url=https://www.hayfestival.com/portal/documents/MerthyrRockReport-final-public.pdf |title=Final Report - Hay Festival |website=www.hayfestival.com}}</ref> as well as a founding director of the Groucho Club.<ref name="London">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDA1qPoWl8IC&pg=PA184 |title=London |last=Dailey |first=Donna |author2=John Tomedi |author3=Harold Bloom |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=9781438115559 |page=184}}</ref>
==Death== On 7 June 2017, while suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Victor died from a heart attack.<ref>{{cite news|last=Campbell|first=Lisa|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/ed-victor-dies-567676|title=Ed Victor dies|work=The Bookseller|date=8 June 2017|access-date=8 June 2017}}</ref><ref>Sherwin, Adam, [https://inews.co.uk/essentials/ed-victor-literary-super-agent-david-cameron-nigella-lawson-dies/ "Ed Victor, literary ‘super-agent’ to David Cameron and Nigella Lawson, dies"], ''i News'', 8 June 2017.</ref>
==Selected clients== From official website<ref>[http://www.edvictor.com/clients_atoz.html Clients] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003035245/http://www.edvictor.com/clients_atoz.html |date=2017-10-03 }}, Ed Victor Ltd.</ref> {{div col|colwidth=15em}} *Douglas Adams (Estate) *John Banville *Johanna Basford *Candice Bergen *Carl Bernstein *Max Brooks *Mel Brooks *Tina Brown *Alastair Campbell *Raymond Chandler (Estate) *Eric Clapton *Sophie Dahl *Joe Eszterhas *Sir Harold Evans *Rupert Everett *Sir Ranulph Fiennes *Frederick Forsyth *James Fox *Mark Frost *A. A. Gill *Charles Glass *Julian Glover *Annabel Goldsmith *Geordie Greig *Josephine Hart (Estate) *Jack Higgins *Will Hutton *Dylan Jones *Nigella Lawson *Kathy Lette *Natascha McElhone *Andrew Marr *Iris Murdoch (Estate) *Richard Neville *Edna O'Brien *Ben Okri *Roman Polanski *Frederic Raphael *Keith Richards *Ruth Rogers *Lisa St Aubin de Terán *Gerald Scarfe *Sir Stephen Spender (Estate) *Pamela Stephenson *Peter Stothard *Pete Townshend *Irving Wallace (Estate) *Tim Waterstone *Lord Lloyd Webber *U2 {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20180111174917/http://www.edvictor.com/ Official website] * [http://www.writersservices.com/agent/uk/Ed_Victor.htm Ed Victor Ltd at Writers' & Artists' Yearbook]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Victor, Ed}} Category:1939 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Category:American book editors Category:American emigrants to England Category:American expatriates in England Category:American male journalists Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Bayside High School (Queens) alumni Category:British Jews Category:British people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Journalists from New York City Category:American literary agents Category:Marshall Scholars Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:People from the Bronx