- Famous literary agent.
- Died on his 102nd birthday.
- Was a failed magazine publisher (co-owned New York-based magazine Weekend after being discharged from the United States Military).
- Declined to represent President Lyndon Johnson's memoir "The Vantage Point" because his representatives demanded $1 million for the book and requested that he receive less than his usual commission for the honor of working with him. Lord instead found a deal for "Quotations from Chairman LBJ," a bestselling parody.
- Worked for years to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac's "On the Road".
- Has a daughter Rebecca.
- Was a tennis star at Grinnell College.
- Started his own agency in 1952 and later merged with rival Literistic to form Sterling Lord Literistic Inc.
- Edited his high school newspaper and worked as a sports stringer around the same time for the Des Moines Register.
- Client roster included Jack Kerouac ("On The Road"), Amiri Baraka, Ken Kesey ("Sometimes A Great Notion"), Lawrence Ferlinghetti ("Little Boy"), Joe McGinniss ("Fatal Vision"), Stan & Jan Berenstain ("The Berenstain Bears"), Jimmy Breslin, Nicholas Pileggi ("Wiseguy"), Howard Fast, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Senator Ted Kennedy, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Judge John Sirica of Watergate fame.
- Served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.
- In 2013 he published his memoir "Lord Of Publishing".
- His uncle Aldo Leopold was a respected scientist and writer.
- In 1976 his book "Returning The Serve Intelligently" was included in the United States Tennis Instructional Series published by Doubleday.
- His father, also named Sterling, was an executive at the Leopold Desk Company in Burlington, Iowa and also worked as a bookbinder.
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