The fact that the world is now celebrating the arc of Mr. McCarthy’s monumental career is a testament to the novelist’s undeniable talent. But it’s also due to his timely recognition that, without his protector, Mr. Erskine, and the vanished world of publishing that Mr. Erskine represented, he would need to change the way his books were published. In the 1960s, large corporations began acquiring publishing houses, consolidating the industry into fewer and fewer conglomerates. Literary agents became essential intermediaries, as publishing houses no longer riffled through submissions to find emerging talents. A poorly typed manuscript like Mr. McCarthy’s debut would struggle to make it into, let alone be rescued from, a slush pile.

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Persons: it’s, Erskine, McCarthy’s, Robert Bernstein, Newhouse, Alberto Vitale, who’d, Mr, Vitale, ”, André Schiffrin, “, McCarthy, Lynn Nesbit, Robert Caro, Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, Tom Wolfe, “ I’ve, ” Mr, you’re, Amanda “ Binky, Urban, Sonny Mehta, Robert Gottlieb, MacArthur, who’s Organizations: RCA, S.I, Mr, Olivetti, Fiat, Random, Knopf, The New York Times