Abner Stein

I went to the Abner Stein Memorial this afternoon at the Hurlingham Club. There were about 250 people there which is quite a lot considering that not many people will have heard of him. Abner came from Boston, Mass. and landed on these shores in the '60s to set up Sphere books for the Thomson publishing company. He subsequently worked for a time for Hatchette and then struck out on his own as a literary agent, mainly sourcing his authors from US literary agents whose clients wanted representation in the UK. Although business was slow to begin with he had a knack for picking winning authors like John Grisham and Dan Brown. Although a private man Abner's lunches were famous in the literary world and eventually all the smoking and drinking resulted in kidney failure requiring dialysis 3 times a week and the amputation of the lower parts of his legs. All of this he seemed to take in his stride. He never complained and carried on pretty much as before. I last had lunch with him about three years ago and although he did not seem to smoke as much he had certainly not lost his taste or thirst for fine wine! Sadly he died about three months ago after having had a nasty fall.