Russell & Volkening, Inc. Information

Russell & Volkening was founded in 1940 by Diarmuid Russell and Henry Volkening. They were responsible for discovering and representing some of the most noted writers in the history of American publishing, including Eudora Welty, Bernard Malamud, Anne Tyler, George Plimpton, Barbara Tuchman, and South African Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer. In 1972, they sold their agency to Timothy Seldes, formerly the Managing Editor of Doubleday, Vice President of Macmillan, and Assistant Publisher of The New York Post. Seldes continued the tradition with Annie Dillard, Tony Award winner Ntozake Shange, Jim Lehrer, and Marian Wright Edelman (President of the Children's Defense Fund), among many others. We handle fiction, non-fiction and children's books, focusing on quality of writing and literary merit across the board.