This image was lost some time after publication.

Who

Nesbit, one of the most powerful literary agents in the biz, is co-head of Janklow & Nesbit.

Backstory

Nesbit started out at mega-agency ICM, working her way up to head of the literary department. In 1988, after more than two decades at ICM, she joined another high-powered agent, Morton Janklow—in a deal reportedly engineered by Disney honcho Michael Ovitz—to create the aptly named Janklow & Nesbit. (She was replaced at ICM by her protégés, Binky Urban and Esther Newberg.) At J&N, she works with a small group of agents including her partner, Mort, his son Luke Janklow, and director Tina Bennett. Collectively, the agency reps about 1,000 authors.

Of note

The list of authors who have worked with Nesbit is extraordinarily long. Some of her authors include (or used to include) Nora Ephron, Anne Rice, Toni Morrison, John Le Carre, historian David McCullough, Oliver Sacks, Robert Caro, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Robin Cook, Norman Pearlstine, and Jimmy Carter. Nesbit scored Michael Crichton a jaw-dropping $40 million two-book deal with HarperCollins in 2001. She's also done mega-deals for the less famous: She got first-time novelist Stephen L. Carter a $4 million two-book deal for his 2003 bestseller The Emperor of Ocean Park and his upcoming follow-up New England White. (She dropped 19 pages of notes on Carter after he submitted his 900-page first draft of Emperor.) The longtime agent for both Joan Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, Nesbit was the first person to visit and tend to Didion after Dunne died of a heart attack in December 2003. The episode is recounted in Didion's bestselling 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, which Nesbit sold to Knopf.

Personal

Nesbit's now deceased ex-husband was Yale professor and theater critic Richard Gilman, whom she wed in 1966. The marriage produced two daughters, Priscilla and Claire.

Habitat

In October 2001, shortly after she got the commission from her massive Michael Crichton deal, Nesbit plunked down $3.5 million for an eight-room, 3,200-square-foot duplex co-op on Park Avenue. Her neighbors in the building include Iris Cantor, Judith Rodin, and sports exec Steve Bornstein.