Facing the prospect of a waning empire and no clear successor, Spanish agent Carmen Balcells, 83, announced last month that she had signed a letter of intent with the New York literary agent Andrew Wylie to form a new venture, the Balcells-Wylie agency. The outline of the deal remains unclear, and there is always a chance that Ms. Balcells could change her mind. The New York Times published this piece about her, the deal and the end of an era.

“Carmen Balcells was never just a literary agent. Nicknamed La Mamá Grande, after a story by Gabriel García Márquez, she served as a confidante and coach, someone who paid her writers’ dentist bills and deftly resolved their domestic problems while promoting the greatest Latin American and Spanish authors across the globe, including Mr. García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and many more.”

Read the complete story here.