From Brooklyn to Broadway: How Bertha Klausner Built America’s Most Innovative Literary Agency

This is Part 1 of a two-part series exploring the remarkable life of Bertha Klausner, one of America’s most influential literary agents. Read Part 2 here.

Bertha Klausner was among one of the most influential literary agents in the United States and internationally throughout the twentieth century. 

Born in Brooklyn in 1901 to Austro-Hungarian immigrant parents, she was known for her tireless work ethic, innovative strategies, and deep commitment to her clients during the course of a career that spanned over six decades. Klausner played a pivotal role in the literary, art, and entertainment markets and solidified her role as a trailblazer for women nationally and internationally.¹

Early Years and Family Influence

As a child, and throughout most of her adult life, her father Jacob Adler—a prominent writer who was often referred to as the “Mark Twain of Jewish writers”—introduced Klausner into the world of literature and politics.”² Her rich educational upbringing was set against a background of economic hardship; consequently she was no stranger to adversity.³

This fact, and the tenacity of her own father to realize his dream of being an influential author, served to shape her leadership and entrepreneurial spirit. These qualities led her to weave together an intricate sphere of influence. These inclinations would serve her well over the course of a career that was marked by resilience and an unyielding dedication to literature, the arts, and above all else her family and clients.

Innovation through the Women’s Exchange

After the 1929 Wall Street crash cost her structural engineer husband his financial backing, Klausner took the family’s last $2,000 and, with two young children in tow, invested it in researching and establishing a Woman’s Exchange in Asbury, New Jersey.⁴ At the turn of the century Woman’s Exchanges boasted approximately one hundred organizations and, while their numbers have diminished significantly, they continue to be one of the oldest operating charitable organizations in the United States.⁵ The Federation of Woman’s Exchanges’ website states that while women “received valuable training in retail organization and management, something they could not hope to attain in the male-dominated retail market in the late 1800s and early 1900s . . . its numbers began to die out shortly after women received the right to vote [in 1920] and began to join the work force.”⁶

Klausner patterned the Asbury Park Exchange after the historic agencies that were first established in the 1830s. They existed in part to address the lack of legal and economic protections for widows in accordance with the doctrine of coverture—the status of married women during the time that placed them lawfully under the control of their husbands, and erased any legal rights they may have had to own their own property, children, or to advocate on their own behalf.

While the doctrine of coverture was gradually mitigated at the end of the 19^th century and early in the 20^th, the need for women to earn an income to support themselves and their families was not. These exchanges were run by women and provided an opportunity for women to submit handiwork which, in turn, would be sold at the exchange. It provided needed income for women and their families as well as charitable organizations.⁷ In light of this, her efforts did not go unrewarded. Klausner’s biographer, Howell Hurst, noted in his unpublished manuscript that, “[The Exchange] was an instant success. With over 300 carefully-selected women’s handcrafts for sale, Bertha garnered offers from the local mayor and the major department store for financial assistance.”⁸

Klausner’s initiative proved crucial after bank failures resulted in the loss of her husband’s engineering work, at which time she assumed the role as the primary provider for their family. She engineered an intricate network of housing for her family, rent free, in agreement with banks to take care of mansions left empty after the stock market crash, and afforded a place to live, not just for herself, her husband, and their children, but for a diversity of individuals. These members of her “extended” family provided child care, helped to maintain the household, and prepared meals for them. One of the chefs who resided with the family also cooked at a tea room located at Klausner’s Women’s Exchange.⁹

Community Leadership

Klausner was also involved in her faith and local communities. In November 1930, she attended a joint session of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Associations (Y.M.H.A. and Y.W.H.A., respectively). In an article published in The Long Branch Daily Record on November 14, 1930, it was noted that “Mrs. Edward S. Klausner, president of the Y.W.H.A. of Asbury Park” was on the itinerary and presented at the same program alongside her father.¹⁰

The first Y.W.H.A. was founded in New York in 1902 and provided “social recreational activities for Jewish working girls and, in some instances, temporary housing, all of which [afforded] ‘hundreds of hard-working girls with a chance of bettering their condition and of helping them, in many cases, from a condition of want and necessity to a place in the world where they can become independent and self-supporting.’”¹¹ Both Klausner and her husband, Edward, were advocates of the communities they lived in and provided leadership and assistance wherever they were needed.

Breaking into Publishing

As though this was “not enough” (which in the storied career of Bertha Klausner is really a phrase that held little or no meaning to her), Klausner was also instrumental in establishing a newspaper, The Monmouth Independent, which played a pivotal role in exposing and dismantling a corrupt local government in Monmouth County, New Jersey, through its investigative journalism and detailed reporting on bribery, embezzlement, and other illegal activities by local officials. Her activities in the publishing world included developing the Independent Publishers Syndicate, which served over 500 papers and became a model for current features such as Parade and This Week.¹² These early ventures established her as a formidable businesswoman and paved the way for her later success as a literary agent.

Launching a Literary Career

In 1945, after a career of representing artists and illustrators, the mother of now two adolescents established the Bertha Klausner Literary Agency (which later became the Bertha Klausner International Literary Agency).¹³ This led to the beginning of a vast and lauded career.

Building on her success, “in 1945, Klausner transitioned to representing primarily writers, quickly gaining a reputation for her ability to sell diverse literary works, from radio scripts to full-length dramas, to major networks and publishers.”¹⁵ Through it all, Klausner challenged the status quo in the marketplace. She undertook this career within the framework of a male-dominated industry. In the early part of the twentieth century only 5% of “most [married] women in the United States [worked] outside of the home, and only 20% of all women were gainfully employed.”¹⁶

When Klausner began to focus her attention on the literary side of her agency, women had made some gains. Beginning in the 1940s “approximately 12% of married women were in the labor force and the overall total of women working had risen to 50%.”¹⁷ Klausner was well-positioned to capitalize on this growing trend.

The challenges for women in the workplace were further aggravated following World War II when the large number of women who had entered the workforce during the war faced pressure to leave and make room for returning servicemen. “Seventy-five percent of women who were employed during the conflict in the 1940s indicated that they wanted to stay in the workforce; however, despite this, there were mass layoffs of women at the end of the war.”¹⁸ Even so, 35% of women worked outside of the home and, by the end of the decade, approximately one-half of those were married. “This was a decrease in the number of women who were in the workforce prior to World War II, nevertheless, an increase in the number of married women participating.”¹⁹ Klausner maintained her employment status throughout this fluctuation of women’s participation in the job market. What’s more, she opened an office in Hollywood working on both American coasts until 1960.

Hollywood

Ten years after the establishment of her first agency in 1938, Klausner turned her sights to Hollywood and began maintaining an office and regular presence on the West Coast. From the late 1940s until 1960, Klausner fostered valuable relationships in Hollywood. In 1955, she wrote to her secretary, Jean Cappel, “I am convinced that I should be here every other month. I can sell fast—as I make friends & they are anxious to cooperate.”²⁰

She entertained personalities from her Hollywood base. One such event in 1957 was reported on in the Los Angeles Citizen News: “Authors Robert Payne and Caresse Crosby were feted at a dinner party recently at the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel. Bertha Klausner was hostess to guests, who includes Messrs. and Mmes. David O. Woodbury, Joseph Lederman, Jack Guss, . . . Art Cohn, . . . Vernon Duke, Ivy Crane Wilson, Whitney Stine, Leona Taub . . . [and] Lili Valenty.²¹ She also worked with top names in the film industry, which included individuals such as Stanley Kramer, who directed and produced such films as Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Ship of Fools and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. 

She likewise represented film notables such as Basil Rathbone, who was known for his Shakespearean roles, Sherlock Holmes films (1939-1946), and the film The Mark of Zorro. Among her many others clients were actors who worked across film, radio, and the stage.  Klausner was Rathbone’s agent from the 1950s until his death in 1967; during that time, she encouraged him as he wrote his memoir which was published in 1962.²² 

Handwritten letters to Klausner from Rathbone chronicled the famed actor’s writing process and underscored the intimate relationship that she enjoyed with her clients. In one letter to Klausner, Rathbone wrote, “I may be going mad I don’t know! But I can’t stop writing way into every night.”²³ In a later letter he pondered, “I am not a writer & this book cannot be treated as a literary project.  Nor can anyone else assume to understand anyone else’s thoughts & feelings in this matter. Anxious as I am to go on with this book it must be a complete expression of myself or it will be no good.”²⁴

Not all of her relationships with her Hollywood clients were as cordial, however. Klausner represented Joseph “Joe” E. Brown. A versatile entertainer, Brown performed in vaudeville, on the stage, and in film, starring in dozens of plays and movies. Two of his best known pictures were Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel by the same name, and Some Like It Hot, which starred Marilyn Monroe along with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Klausner had solicited Brown to write his memoirs, which he agreed to.

She represented him through the publication of his autobiography, Laughter is a Wonderful Thing (1956), as told to Ralph Hancock. Temperaments certainly flared in her relationship with Brown. While Klausner had intimate and amiable relationships with most of her clients, her relationship with Brown was rocky at times. Hancock, who worked directly with Brown, had written to Klausner on January 20, 1955, concerning Brown’s dissatisfaction with her. In his letter, he reported that Brown was “fuming” because he believed that Klausner was “peddling” his idea for the autobiography. Hancock wrote, “He said he didn’t want you to peddle the idea [memoir] door to door and cheapen it that way. He was also peeved that you called him collect last week. And on top of all that he has a general dislike for agents as a whole.” Hancock also suggested that “he [Brown] is going to be very difficult to handle.” He went on to write, “I do not want you to promise him or me anything you can’t deliver, nor make any more statements about what you have lined up until you have it in writing. Neither he nor I can be fooled by such kidding. We’ve both been in business too long for that. And I think it hurts your own reputation too.”²⁵ 

Klausner replied on January 24, 1955: “Your letter of January 20^th certainly threw me for a loop. I thought that you knew me well enough to believe that anything I told you was on the level. I have built my reputation as an agent on my honesty and the complete sincerity I feel is due my clients… I seldom have any friction with anyone, as I have conducted my business on a very friendly basis and have made associations with my clients which have become lifelong friendships. Most people who work with me recognize that I have qualities which are not the usual in a relationship between agent and author. I like to keep my arrangements with clients a close and warm family tie. I thought you knew this, and that was why I am at a loss to understand how you could write a letter to me as you did.”²⁶

Klausner was occasionally brought to task by clients, publishers, and others; however, she did not back down. She advocated for herself with the same vigor she brought to representing her clients. She went on to see Brown’s project through to completion.

The expense of maintaining an office on both coasts began to take its toll on the Bertha Klaunser International Literary Agency. A 1956 letter from Cappel, her secretary, underscored the inadequate financial condition of the agency: “I am sorry if I disturbed you with my plea for checks—I know the situation but didn’t quite know what to do with all the calls & letters I got from the clients asking for their monies. Hope things will go more smoothly next month.”²⁷ By October, Jean was beseeching Klausner to send money to manage the day-to-day operations of the agency; she was paying for postage and office supplies out of her own pocket.²⁸ In November, in reference to a debt owed by the agency, the beleaguered secretary mentioned that it was “a bit embarrassing for me to go in the story [sic] as he has asked for it now several times.”²⁹

In the midst of this, always the optimist, Klausner later replied, “Today a miracle happened to me.  Something so rare I still can’t believe it—but it will change my course for at least the coming year and during this year.  I will have an opportunity to carry out plans which were always dreams.  We have an angel.  I’ll tell you more later… I have acquired quite a bit of new property & clients… I must sell all I can in New York on my return & collect payments to straighten out accounts.”³⁰ There is nothing more to indicate what the “miracle” may have been; regardless, Klausner maintained her office in Hollywood until 1960 at which time she closed it down and returned to working full time from New York. 

Coming up in Part 2: How Klausner built an international literary empire and became known as “The Big Bertha of Literary Agents.”

Post contributed AHC Archives Aide Patty Kessler.

1. Howell Hurst to Bertha Klausner, May 7, 1987 (outline of edited material and biography attached, 13), box 1, folder 1, Bertha Klausner papers, Coll. No. 9562, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. ↩︎
2. Hurst, 1-2. ↩︎
3. Morna Murphy, “Sinclair Play in Klausner Projects,” The Hollywood Reporter, April 2, 1981; Biography File, Klausner papers; Hurst, 2. ↩︎
4. Hurst, 2. ↩︎
5. “Detroit Women’s Exchange,” Encyclopedia of Detroit, Detroit Historical Society, https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/detroit-womens-exchange. Accessed April 15, 2025. ↩︎
6. Becky Lower, “The Federation of Woman’s Exchanges,” History Imagined: For Readers, Writers, & Lovers of Historical Fiction, WordPress.com, October 5, 2018, https://historyimagined.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/the-federation-of-womans-exchanges/. Accessed May 6, 2025. ↩︎
7. Ellen E. Dickinson, New York Exchange for Women’s Work, Women & The American Story (New York Historical Society, 1879), https://wams.nyhistory.org/a-nation-divided/reconstruction/ny-exchange-for-womens-work/ . Accessed January 12, 2025; Jane Weizmann, “Federation of Women’s Exchanges,” Blogspot.com, December 1, 2022, https://wefed.blogspot.com/. Accessed January 12, 2025. ↩︎
8. Hurst to Klausner, May 7, 1987, 2, Klausner papers. ↩︎
9. Maya Reiser, interview by Patty Kessler, January 23, 2025, interview transcript, American Heritage Center. ↩︎
10. “Hebrew’s Have Joint Session: Monmouth and Ocean County Representatives Convene; Tumen Honorary Head,” The Daily Record 29, no. 267 (1930): 1. ↩︎
11. David E. Kaufman, “Young Women’s Hebrew Association,” The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Jewish Women’s Archive, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/young-womens-hebrew-association. Accessed January 12, 2025. ↩︎
12. Hurst to Klausner, May 7, 1987, notes from recorded interviews, Klausner papers. ↩︎
13. Klausner to Jean Cappel, Tuesday, 5 P.M., 1955, box 65, folder 11, Coll. 9562, Klausner papers. This is the first written suggestion that she was considering the establishment of her agency internationally. ↩︎
14. Rebecca Spence, interview by Patty Kessler, February 26, 2025, interview transcript, American Heritage Center. Later in the century, Klausner represented authors who were influential in the Black Arts Movement including Dorothy West.  Dorothy West was an author during the Harlem Renaissance and a friend and one-time roommate of Zora Neil Hurston. ↩︎
15. Hurst to Klausner, May 7, 1987, 2-4, Klausner papers. ↩︎
16. Janet L. Yellen, “The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It has Created Success for Us All,” The Brookings Gender Equality Series 2020, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institute, May 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/. Accessed January 15, 2025; Mickey Moran, “1930s America—Feminist Void? The Status of the Equal Rights Movement During the Great Depression,” The Student Historical Journal 1988-1989, History, College of Arts & Sciences, Loyola University, http://cas.loyno.edu/history/student-historical-journal-1988-1989. Accessed January 15, 2025. ↩︎
17. Yellen, “The History of Women’s Work and Wages”; Moran, “1930s America—Feminist Void?” ↩︎
18. “Women on the Home Front,” Khan Academy, https://www.lessonplanet.com/teachers/khan-academy-american-women-and-world-war-ii. Accessed January 15, 2025; Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil, Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, 4th ed. (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016). ↩︎
19. Ibid. ↩︎
20. Klausner to Jean Cappel, Friday, 8 P.M., October or November 1955, box 65, folder 11, Klausner papers. ↩︎
21. “March Party Whirl Roars In With Weekend Fetes,” Los Angeles Citizen News 52, no. 287 (1957): 10. The Jack Guss papers (Coll. No. 10899) are held at the American Heritage Center. ↩︎
22. After Rathbone’s death she continued to field questions and work on behalf of The Actors’ Fund (now known as The Entertainment Community Fund) to which he had bequeathed his papers and memoirs. She also continued to represent his wife, Ouida (Bergére), who was an actress, screenwriter, and playwright. ↩︎
23. Basil Rathbone to Klausner, April 30, 1961, box 99, folder 2, Klausner papers. ↩︎
24. Rathbone to Klausner, January 30, 1961, box 99, folder 2, Klausner papers. ↩︎
25. Ralph Hancock to Klausner, January 20, 1955, box 14, folder 16, Klausner papers. ↩︎
26. Klausner to Hancock, January 24, 1955, box 14, folder 16, Klausner papers. ↩︎
27. Cappel to Klausner, July 30, 1955, box 13, folder 5, Klausner papers. ↩︎
28. Cappel to Klausner, October 26, 1955, box 65, folder 11, Klausner papers. ↩︎
29. Cappel to Klausner, November 1, 1955, box 65, folder 11, Klausner papers. ↩︎
30. Klausner to Cappel, November 15, 1955, box 65, folder 11, Klausner papers. ↩︎