Hon. Esmond Harmsworth (1967-2025)
rcb1
dpth...@gmail.com
rcb1
dpth...@gmail.com
dpth...@gmail.com
Source: The Telegraph, 15 April 2025
Richard R
malcolm davies
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 17 April 2025:
E X T R A C T
Esmond Harmsworth obituary: literary agent from Rothermere family
Scion of newspaper family whose advice to potential author clients was to avoid heart-shaped paper and spelling mistakes, dies aged 57
…Harmsworth, a scion of the Rothermere newspaper family, was well known in American literary circles. He was a founding partner of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth (ZSH) literary agency, which in 2016 merged with Kuhn Projects to form Aevitas Creative, one of the world’s largest literary agencies, of which he was president.
…Like many agents, Harmsworth had a wealth of advice for authors seeking representation, including “avoid spelling and grammar errors and long, boring letters”. It was also good to avoid “cute things”, he said. “People come to the office wearing costumes” or “submit work on heart-shaped paper” sometimes using bizarre fonts. “If you are looking to catch [an agent’s] eye, do it with the best writing possible and leave the stationery and chicken suit at home.”
Esmond Vyvyan Harmsworth was born at Warwick House, London, in 1967. He was the son of Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere, an MP and chairman of the Daily Mail, and his third wife Mary (née Murchison), a philanthropist and socialite (Rothermere’s second wife, Ann, with whom he had no children, later married Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond).
Harmsworth had fond memories of his childhood at Daylesford House in Gloucestershire, where, under new ownership, Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds celebrated their nuptials in 2022.
…He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Eton College. Diana Oehrli, a journalist and friend, described in her blog meeting him in Monte Carlo “dressed in full tails, fresh off a plane from Eton, driven by your mother’s chauffeur straight to our hotel, where your mother had rented five rooms and turned them into her apartment”.
After his father’s death in 1978, mother and son settled in the US. By the early 1980s he was spending summers in Newport, Rhode Island, a popular destination for wealthy families.
…Harmsworth is survived by his French husband, Jérôme Buet, who works in marketing, and by their two young children, Alfred and Liliane.
…Harmsworth, who had recently moved to London with his family, continued to read voraciously for work and pleasure.
Esmond Harmsworth, literary agent, was born on June 18, 1967. He died from heart failure while on holiday in Mauritius on April 9, 2025, aged 57
