Toni Strassman was an authors' representative

Literary agent

A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...

 based in New York City. Her clients included Charles Harris (Brick) Garrigues

Charles Harris Garrigues

thumb|upright|right|C.H. Garrigues,about 1941Charles Harris Garrigues was a California writer and journalist who wrote as C.H. Garrigues. He was a general-assignment reporter in Los Angeles, California, in the 1920s, a grand jury investigator and political activist in the 1930s, a newspaper copy...

, John and Martha Clayton, William Goyen

William Goyen

Charles William Goyen was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, editor, and teacher. Born in a small town in East Texas, these roots would influence his work for his entire life....

, Harry Mark Petrakis

Harry Mark Petrakis

Harry Mark Petrakis is an American author born in 1923. He grew up in Chicago's Greek neighborhoods during the depression and published his experiences of those times as the memoir Stelmark. His notable works include Journal of a Novel and The Hour of the Bell.-References:...

 and Friderike Zweig, the first wife of Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...

.

She was born as Fanny Strassman on October 28, 1895. Of delicate health as a young woman, she spent most of 1926 and 1927 in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico before returning to New York. At that time she wanted to be a dancer or actress, and in 1929 she was an understudy with the Provincetown Players

Provincetown Players

The Provincetown Players was an amateur group of writers and artists who, at the early part of the 20th Century, wanted to see a change in American theatre and created a company committed to producing new plays by exclusively American playwrights...

 in Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

, but the group disbanded before her show was mounted.

Strassman then worked for Viking Press

Viking Press

Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

; she changed her name to Toni in 1936, shortly before she became a full-time literary agent. She died in New York City on April 15, 1988.

Her papers, which include correspondence, memoranda, contracts, royalty statements, manuscripts, diaries, daybooks and photographs, are in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

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