Founded in 1929, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. is one of the most storied and celebrated literary agencies in the country, representing some of the most iconic authors of the 20th Century.
Harold Ober Associates
Agatha Christie
William Faulkner
Langston Hughes
James M. Cain
HISTORY OF THE AGENCY
Founded in 1929, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. is one of the most storied and celebrated literary agencies in the country, representing some of the greatest iconic authors of the 20th Century.
In 1907 — two years after graduating from Harvard with a degree in literature — Harold Ober became a literary agent at the Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency. By 1908 he was representing such authors as Jack London and H.G. Wells. In 1929, he opened his own eponymous agency, which went on to represent such authors as Agatha Christie, William Faulkner, Pearl S. Buck, and so many other legends.
Harold Ober himself was a fascinating man. A New Hampshire Yankee, he worked his way through Harvard by tutoring. After graduating in 1905, he spent two years in England and France before he took a job with a literary agency – “where,” he wrote in his Harvard 50th Anniversary Class Report, “I became so involved in the lives of authors that I abandoned all idea of myself becoming one.” Just before the 1929 Crash, he founded Harold Ober Associates.
Ober brought on many talented agents to work with him, including Ivan von Aaw and Dorothy Olding,
Ivan von Auw worked for the Harold Ober Agency for 35 years, from 1938 until his retirement in 1973. Among the writers Mr. von Auw represented in the United States were Pearl Buck, James M. Cain, Agatha Christie, Agnes de Mille, John Gunther, Langston Hughes, Oscar Lewis, Ross Macdonald, Muriel Spark, Dylan Thomas and T. H. White.
Dorothy Olding, who also joined Ober in 1938, became president of the agency in 1973, working with authors such as Ngaio Marsh, Ira Levin, and numerous others.
Dorothy was succeeded by Claire M. Smith, whose clients included Richard Adams, Judy Blume, Dean Koontz and James Herriot. Her first success came with The Incredible Journey, a novel by Sheila Burnford about the travels of two dogs and a cat across the Canadian wilderness. The book has been the basis for three Disney films.
In 1998, Phyllis Westberg took over the reins of the agency, discovering Danielle Steele, among many others.
THE AGENCY TODAY
Upon Westerberg’s retirement in 2018, management of Harold Ober succeeded to a new group of industry professionals, with the goal of connecting the agency’s outstanding authors with new generations of readers. Harold Ober is not currently seeking new authors.
Effective July 2021, Harold Ober Associates acquired the right to administer royalty payments for over 200 backlist titles brought to print by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
Represented by Harold Ober — Past and Present
Chinua Achebe
David C. Acheson
J.R. Ackerley
Richard Adams
Debra Adelaide
Agnes de Mille
Carl Alasko
Sherwood Anderson
Michael Arditti
Michael Asher
Jay Atkinson
Nigel Barley
Correlli Barnett
Wilton Barnhardt
Erik Barnouw
Mary Ellin Barrett
Michael Benson
Rachel Billington
Judy Blume
Hal Bock
Arna Bontemps
J. S. Borthwick
Catherine Drinker Bowen
Gordon Bowker
John Braine
Malcolm Braly
David Brewer
Denis Brian
John Brooks
Pearl S. Buck
Sheila Burnford
Robert Byrne
James M. Cain
John Dickson Carr
Jonathan Carroll
William Caunitz
Mavis Cheek
James Conaway
Yvonne Conde
Ann Mariah Cook
Whitfield Cook
Charles Coulombe
Fred D’Aguiar
Gavan Daws
la Torre de
RF Delderfield
Benjamin DeMott
Joan Dial
Carter Dickson
Frank DiMatteo
Stephen Dobyns
John E. Douglas
Clifford Dowdey
Lois Duncan
John Dunning
Arabella Edge
David Edmonds
Walter D. Edmonds
John Eidinow
Erik Esckilsen
Doris Faber
Eleanor Farjeon
E.X. Ferrars
Anne Fine
Marjorie Flack
Corey Ford
Ford Maddox Ford
Jesse Hill Ford
Richard Forrest
E. M. Forster
Stephen Fry
Paul Gallico
Jane Gardam
Sheldon Gerstenfeld
David Getz
Myla Goldberg
Amy Goldman
Elizabeth Goudge
William Goyen
Caroline Graham
Zalin Grant
F. L. Green
Peter Green
Sara Gruen
Roderick L. Haig-Brown
Sara Bliss Hamblett
John Maxwell Hamilton
C.M. Harris
Lee Harris
John Fraser Hart
Roy Hart
Deborah Hautzig
John Hawkes
Cameron Hawley
Gerald Heard
Henry FitzGerald Heard
Robert R. Hellenga
James Herriot
Joseph Heywood
Christopher Hibbert
Charlotte Hinger
Dilip Hiro
Russell Hoban
Thaddeus Holt
Geoffrey Hosking
Richard Hough
Michael Howard
Susan Howatch
Mary B. Howes
Edwin Hoyt
Langston Hughes
Richard Hughes
Melanie Jackson
Madhur Jaffrey
H. Paul Jeffers
Matthew Josephson
Denis Judd
Wayne Karlin
M M Kaye
John Alva Keel
Paul M. Kennedy
Marie Joan Killilea
Michael Kimball
James Kirschke
C.H.B. Kitchin
Joseph Koenig
Dean Koontz
George Krimsky
Mary Helen Lagasse
Dewey W. Lambdin
James D. Landis
Hugh Laurie
William J. Lederer
Ira Levin
David Lewis
Oscar Lewis
Hart B.H. Liddell
Robert Lindner
Penelope Lively
Charles O. Locke
James Lord
James Lovelock
Lois Lowry
Malcolm Macdonald
Marianne Macdonald
Ross MacDonald
Norman Maclean
Barry Maitland
William March
Ngaio Marsh
John Bartlow Martin
Robert C. Mason
Kumin Maxine
Laurie McBain
Donald McCaig
Maclyn McCarty
Richard McCord
Elizabeth McCracken
Colin McEvoy
Robert McFarlane
Neil McGinness
Seán McGrady
Patrick F. McManus
Carey McWilliams
Milton Meltzer
Patricia Miles
Margaret Millar
Stephen Minta
Joseph Mitchell
Marjorie Moores
Joyce Morgan
Willard Mullin
Hester J. Mundis
Robert William Murphy
John Joseph Nance
John Naughton
P.H. Newby
Angela Nicholas
Mary Norton
Lynn Olanoff
Mark Olshaker
Eilis O'Neal
Allen Orcutt
Yeon Hwan Park
Donald Mills Pearce
S.J. Perelman
Sister Mary Perry OP
Robert Phillips
Tamora Pierce
John Pilger
Anne M. Pillsworth
Belva Plain
Anthony Powell
Susan Mary Power
Michael Powers
James Purdy
Bette-Jane Raphael
Stephen C. Richards
Shepard Rifkin
Carol Ann Rinzler
J. Dennis Robinson
David Roessel
James Ross
Jeffrey Ian Ross
Nancy Wilson Ross
Norman Rosten
Berton Roueché
Michael Rumaker
Ross Russell
C. J. Ryan
Jonathan Schell
Joseph Schreiber
Samuel A. Schreiner
Paul Scott
Karl Shapiro
Andrew Sharmat
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Mitchell Sharmat
William M. Sloane
Webster L. Smalley
John Smallwood
Douglas B. Smith
Martin Cruz Smith
Robert Kimmel Smith
Danielle Steel
John Strawson
Rosemary Sutcliff
Suzanne Szasy
Dylan Thomas
Lewis Thomas
PL Travers
Tom Treece
Vineeta Vijayaraghaven
Edward Vilga
Alan Walker
Edward Lewis Wallant
Conrad Walters
Keith Waterhouse
John D. Weaver
Gordon Weil
John Weisman
Denton Welch
Glenway Wescott
James L. West III
Nathanael West
Donald Westlake
T. H. White
Thomas White
Barbara Willard
Ben Ames Williams
Jeanne Williams
Joan Williams
Maia Wojciechowska
Kathryn Wrightson
Philip Wylie
Xiaoda Xiao
Fred Zackel