Sterling Lord

Sterling Lord (b. 1920) is the founder and cochairman of Sterling Lord Literistic and has been representing authors such as Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey for more than half a century. Born in the Mississippi River town of Burlington, Iowa, Lord graduated from Grinnell College in 1942. After serving in the air force in WWII, Lord worked in New York City for a number of magazines, including Cosmopolitan, before opening his literary agency in 1952. In addition to Kerouac and Kesey, he has represented such authors as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dick Francis, Howard Fast, and Stan and Jan Berenstain. Lord was nationally ranked in the Boys Tennis Division (age fifteen and under) and the Junior Tennis Division (eighteen and under). He has played competitive tennis for seventy-eight years and competed with or against Don Budge, Helen Wills Moody, Billy Talbert, Jean Borotra, and Marcel Bernard. Lord lives in New York City.