Donadio obit

[Doug Millison]

This is worth passing along for our non-commercial purposes here, I 
think. (Thanks for the heads-up, Rich).


http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/national/25DONA.html

January 25, 2001

Candida Donadio, Agent Who Handled 'Catch-22,'
Dies at 71

By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Candida Donadio, the celebrated literary agent who sold Joseph Heller's
first novel, "Catch-22," and Philip Roth's "Goodbye, Columbus," died on
Saturday at her home in Stonington, Conn. She was 71.

According to Neil Olson, her partner in Donadio & Olson, the cause was cancer.
Ms. Donadio had not been active as an agent since 1995 because of her
illness.

Among her clients were Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Robert Stone,
Michael Herr, Bruce Jay Friedman and Mario Puzo.

"She really was the agent of her generation," Mr. Olson said. "Her special
talent was identifying new and unique writers. It is hard for us to realize now
when you look at what a Pynchon and what a Heller was doing. She was
looking at these writers in the late 50's and early 60's. People were 
not writing
that way."

Harriet Wasserman of the Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency, who worked with
and was a friend of Ms. Donadio for many years, said of her talent with regard
to writers: "She was an appreciator. She recognized and appreciated what their
gift was."

Ms. Donadio was in her first job as a literary agent in 1957 when she sold the
Joseph Heller novel that was then titled "Catch 18."

The contract with Simon & Schuster called for Heller to receive $750 on signing
and $750 on publication.

Because Leon Uris's "Mila 18" posed the possibility of confusion, a 
title change
for the Heller book was in order.

Ms. Donadio said the number 22 was chosen as a substitute because Oct. 22
was her birthday.

Ms. Wasserman was working with her at the time, as a secretary, at Herb Jaffe
Associates.

"Since a secretary was very important, I got paid $90 a week, and Candida,
since she was only an agent, got only $75 a week," Ms. Wasserman said.

Ms. Donadio, a child of Italian immigrants, was born in 1929 in Brooklyn and
moved to Manhattan in the early 1950's when she began her career as a
secretary at the McIntosh & McKee agency.

In 1957, when Mr. Jaffe, who represented playwrights, screenwriters and
actors, decided to expand in the literary realm, he hired Ms. Donadio, who was
still a secretary but had a reputation for working extremely hard and working
directly with some of the clients at McIntosh & McKee. And so she became an
agent.

When Mr. Jaffe sold the agency in 1961, Ms. Donadio found a new home at
Russell & Volkening.

In 1968, she joined forces with Robert Lantz, and in the 1970's she formed
her own firm.

Later she became partners with Eric Ashworth and then with Mr. Olson.

Ms. Donadio's two marriages, to the critic H. .E. F. Donahue and to Henry
Bloomstein, a writer, ended in divorce. She is survived by a brother, Louis
Donadio of Tehachapi, Calif., and a sister, Frances Siliani of Florence, Italy.

"She loved reading," Ms. Wasserman said. "She loved writers."




-- 
d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>