The American Scholar has published an excerpt from the forthcoming memoir by the dean of literary agents in New York City, Sterling Lord. He became Jack Kerouac’s agent in the mid-1950s, and in the early 60s linked up with Ken Kesey, who had just written “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” In this excerpt, Lord reflects on the similaries and differences between his two clients and describes the one time that the men met, in New York City in 1964. Kesey and his Merry Pranksters had traveled across country to Manhattan in their painted bus named “Further.” Read the essay here, and look for Sterling’s book, “Lord of Publishing,” when it appears.

Web photo by Joe Mabel courtesy of The American Scholar.