One of first ‘superagents’ in book world

NEW YORK — Mort Janklow, a colorful former corporate attorney who raised high the power of the literary agent as he brokered big advances for publishing, political and entertainment leaders, from Ronald Reagan and Al Gore to David McCullough and Barbara Walters, has died.

Mr. Janklow died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in Water Mill, New York, just days before his 92nd birthday. His death was announced by publicist Paul Bogaards, speaking on behalf of Mr. Janklow’s family and his literary agency, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

“Mort was a beacon of positivity and hope in an uncertain world,” his business partner Lynn Nesbit said in a statement. “He radiated optimism and his clients, family, and friends were always leaning on and learning from him as a result.”

Mr. Janklow was among the first of the so-called “superagents” and became one by accident, stepping in to help with a book by a legal client and old friend, the speechwriter and columnist William Safire, and quickly mastering his new profession. Mr. Janklow was credited, and faulted, for the proliferation of blockbuster books and million-dollar deals in the 1970s and beyond, for jolting a gentleman’s trade with a lawyerly savvy about marketing, subsidiary rights and the fine print of a contract.

“Mort brought publishing people into the space age,” Simon & Schuster executive Joni Evans told New York magazine in 1987.

“One of the reasons to drive for big advances is not to make authors and agents rich,” Mr. Janklow told The New York Times in 1989. “It’s to make the publisher aware of what he’s bought. You’ve got to get them pregnant. They get up before their sales force and say, ‘We paid millions for this book. This is the biggest book we’ve got. Drive it into the stores.’”

He was at ease with liberals (Gore, Michael Moore) and conservatives (Reagan), with brand name writers such as Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steel, and with the journalists Ted Koppel and Daniel Schorr.

Born in New York City in 1930, Mr. Janklow was a lawyer’s son raised in a tough Queens neighborhood, a brilliant, assured child who skipped enough grades to graduate from high school at age 16.