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New York’s Publishing ‘Jackal’ Bags Evelyn Waugh

by Zoe Strimpel
Fri, 28 Mar 2008

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England just lost another little piece of itself to the gaping jaws of American glitz and riches, and in doing so, has set the literary community here alight. Until now, the Evelyn Waugh estate was handled by the august and, once upon a time, most powerful agency in London: Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD). But yesterday, news broke that Andrew Wylie in New York will be dealing with Waugh from now on. Unlike the prolonged chase that finally won him Martin Amis from the outraged hands of Pat Kavanagh (Julian Barnes's wife) at PFD in 1995, Waugh practically fell into his hands.

According to reports, Evelyn's grandson, Alexander Waugh, put a little call in to the Wylie Agency's New York office, just to test the waters. The family had held a conference to decide what was next for the estate, because PFD has been considerably weakened (and scandalized) since a bevy of its top agents left before the end of 2007 — with their clients in tow. "PFD had lost a lot of living writers," Mr. Waugh told the Times of London. "It seemed possible it might not succeed, so we shopped around." When Mr. Wylie — nicknamed "The Jackal" — heard he'd called, he began his trademark heavy pursuit, and scored his target soon thereafter, having flown to Ann Arbor, Mich., to sweet-talk Waugh's oldest surviving child, Teresa D'Arms.

As for being represented by Mr. Wylie, Alexander Waugh told the Times: "We all thought it might be quite nice to have a jackal baring his teeth and snarling ferociously." Rather than wilting and waning, as the ravaged PFD seems to be doing. A sick creature always snarls and bites more, and PFD sure growled defensively at me when I put in a call this morning. First, the agent in charge of this account wasn't there. Then, the media contact was in the bathroom, and then he refused to comment on anything before demanding an e-mail, which he has since ignored. "I expect you've been inundated with calls," I said, innocently. "I can't comment" was the reply.

Just what Mr. Wylie will be doing with his newfound treasure remains to be seen; prestige alone could be a big part of his eagerness to acquire it. "Andrew Wylie was interested in building areas where we had been a bit concerned that not much was happening," Mrs. D'Arms told the Times, enigmatically. "Evelyn Waugh is much less known in this country than he is in England." It's likely that television — perhaps Hollywood — will play a role. After all, Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" has had ludicrously good innings on the screen here, with a new movie version, starring Emma Thompson, just filmed.

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