Andrew Wylie is an American literary agent, known in the book industry as The Jackal.
Background
Wylie is the son of Craig Wylie, one time editor-in-chief at Houghton Mifflin. He grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts and attended Saint 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.
Education
This did not prevent his acceptance at Harvard, where he studied Romance Languages & Literatures, graduating magna cum laude in 1969 (class of 1970).
Career
Wylie founded the literary agency named after him in New York in 1980. He opened a second office in London in 1996. lieutenant now represents more than 700 clients and literary estates.
Foreign his business tactics, Wylie has acquired "The Jackal" as a nickname.
Controversies Throughout his career as a literary agent, Wylie has attracted attention for poaching clients from other agents. 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.
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.
Wiley"s friendly attitude towards Amazon was short-lived, though: 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 ISIS terrorist organization.
Guardian Clients Martin Amis Christine Angot Dave Eggers First Rate (at Lloyd's) Gore Milan Kundera Jonah Lehrer Elmore Leonard Siddhartha Mukherjee Rodrigo Rey Rosa Philip Roth Salman Rushdie West.G. Sebald Andrew Sullivan Alec Wilkinson Mo Yan Estates Saul Bellow Jorge Luis Borges Paul Bowles Norman Mailer William Maxwell Vladimir Nabokov John Updike Evelyn Waugh Roberto Bolaño Oliver Sacks.