Call Number:

C1530

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 28 boxes
• 26 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); George Nicholson Sterling Lord Literistic Author Files, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1995-2015 (bulk) and 1870-2015 (inclusive)

Creator:

Nicholson, George McHugh, 1937-2015

Form:

Correspondence., Contracts., and Drafts (documents).

Abstract:

George Nicholson (1937-2015) was a literary agent for children's and young adult books at Sterling Lord Literistic from 1995 to 2015. The collection consists of his Sterling Lord Literistic office files on the authors and illustrators with whom he worked, such as Tony Abbott, Betsy Byars, Lois Duncan, Patricia Reilly Giff, Alice Provensen, Peter Lerangis, and Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and the literary estates he managed, including those of Don Freeman, Hardie Gramatky, and Lois Lenski. Author files include correspondence and email printouts, as well as copies of contracts and agreements, royalties statements, book jacket proofs, promotional materials, drafts and proofs of book manuscripts, and photocopies and mock-ups of books.

Before joining Sterling Lord Literistic as an agent for children's and young adult books in 1995, George Nicholson (1937-2015) founded Delacorte Press and Yearling Books, and was Publisher of Books for Children at Viking Press, as well as of Bantam Doubleday Dell Books. Among his clients were Tony Abbott, Joan Bauer, Betsy Byars, Cathleen Bell, Lois Duncan, Kevin Emerson, Alexandra Flinn, Patricia Reilly Giff, Jan Greenberg, Michael Harmon, Sandra Jordan, Peter Lerangis, Laura and Tom McNeal, Leonard Marcus, Harry Mazer, Rune Michaels, Philip Nel, Alice Provensen, Deborah Kogan Ray, Susan Goldman Rubin, Sergio Ruzzier, Clete Smith, and Zilpha Keatley Snyder, as well as the literary estates of Don Freeman, Hardie Gramatky, Marguerite Henry, and Lois Lenski. Nicholson also taught and lectured widely, and was on the Board of the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

The collection consists of author files from the office of literary agent and publisher George Nicholson (1937-2015) during his tenure at the literary agency Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc., from 1995 to 2015. Materials include email printouts and other correspondence with children's and young adult book authors and illustrators, as well as regarding the literary estates of Don Freeman, Hardie Gramatky, and Lois Lenski, which he managed. Files are generally arranged by author and often contain copies of contracts and agreements, royalty statements, book jacket proofs, promotional materials, drafts and proofs of book manuscripts, and photocopies and mock-ups of books in addition to correspondence. While some materials (primarily photocopies) in author files are older, the vast majority of materials in the collection date from the 1990s and 2000s.

Materials are arranged alphabetically by author name, based on labels on original hanging file folders.