Candida Donadio

Candida Donadio (October 22, 1929 – January 20, 2001) was an American literary agent. She represented many writers, including Mario Puzo, John Cheever, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy.^[1][2]

Donadio was referred to in the mid-1960s as part of what Esquire called the "red-hot center" of contemporary literature, after shepherding books such as Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961), Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death (1963), and Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963) through successful publishing campaigns.^[3][4]

Donadio was born on October 22, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York City.^[5] Her parents were immigrants from Sicily.^[5]

In 1953, Donadio worked as a girl Friday at McIntosh & McKee, when Joseph Heller submitted a very early version of Catch-22. Heller later wrote in 1994 that Donadio's superiors had no interest in the book, finding it "incomprehensible," but Donadio took initiative to submit the chapter to periodicals.^[6][7] After some time, Donadio convinced the literary magazine New World Writing to accept the first chapter, which increased Heller's confidence in the work.^[6]

By 1957, Donadio secured offers from both Simon & Schuster and Viking Press based on an early completely unfinished draft.^{[citation needed]} Donadio and Heller decided to go with Simon & Schuster, in part due to the enthusiasm of then-editorial assistant Robert Gottlieb. Donadio moved to Herb Jaffe's agency as the firm expanded beyond representing playwrights and actors, with Donadio becoming one of its key literary representatives.^[5]

Heller's Catch-22 was initially called Catch 18, and it was changed to avoid confusion with Leon Uris's Mila 18.^[5][8] In interviews, Donadio claimed that the number was changed to her birthday as a gesture, though Robert Gottlieb rejected that narrative entirely as "lying" in his 2016 autobiography.^[3] He claims that the title change developed from him, as he felt that "22" was much funnier than "18."^[3]

The birthday story is still sometimes repeated as a possible reason for the name change, including in her obituaries.

While working through Catch-22 with Heller, Donadio began to represent Philip Roth in 1958.^[9] Donadio helped negotiate the sale of his first book, Goodbye, Columbus to Houghton Mifflin, boosting the publisher's advance offer from $1,000 to $2,500 by leveraging a counteroffer from Viking Press.^[9] The debut won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1960.^[10]

Donadio served as Roth's agent from 1958 until 1972. While representing him, she notably negotiated large publishing and film rights contracts for Portnoy's Complaint.^[11] In a 1972 letter after firing her as his agent, Roth wrote that "unlike Portnoy, I have no complaints," though biographer Blake Bailey speculates that her "very mothering" style and Roth's "general aloofness" had worn on the relationship.^[12]

After Jaffe sold his agency in 1961, Donadio moved to Russell & Volkening, where she worked until 1968.^[8] She founded her own namesake literary agency after leaving Russell & Volkening, which later bore the name of agents such as Eric Ashworth and Neil Olson.^[13][14]

Donadio's namesake agency ran for more than 20 years after her retirement and 17 years after her death, when it filed for bankruptcy in 2018.^[15] The company's bookkeeper of 20 years, Darin Webb, was sentenced to two years in prison later that same month, for embezzling 3.4 million dollars from the agency.^[16]

In 1984, Donadio sold 120 letters written by Pynchon to herself between 1962 and 1983 to Carter Burden for $45,000 via Santa Barbara book dealer Ralph Sipper.^[17]

Donadio resided in Stonington, Connecticut. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1995, and she died on January 20, 2001.^[5][8]

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