“Mort and I are far from retiring,” Lynn Nesbit said on Friday afternoon. “It isn’t a question on the table at the moment. It really isn’t.”

The night before, one of the stars at the boutique literary agency Ms. Nesbit runs with Mort Janklow abruptly announced that he was leaving for a job at the global, multiplatform talent agency William Morris. Eric Simonoff, who represents Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri and others, had spent 18 years at Janklow & Nesbit. Apart from a stint as an assistant at Norton the year after he graduated from college, it was the only job he’d ever had. At 41, he was widely thought to be the prince of the firm, in line to one day take over for Ms. Nesbit and Mr. Janklow alongside his equally heavy-hitting colleague, Tina Bennett.

Precisely what such a takeover would potentially entail depends on who you ask, but until last week, the consensus assumption among publishing people was that the agency’s namesakes, 78-year-old Mort and 70-year-old Lynn, had been deliberately grooming Mr. Simonoff and Ms. Bennett, and would hand the reins to the agency over to them when they got tired of steering it. 

Because of this, many found Mr. Simonoff’s sudden defection puzzling, and the motivations behind it have been intensely debated.

Though Mr. Simonoff could not be reached for comment, Ms. Nesbit said Friday it wasn’t really so complicated at all.

"I think what provoked him is the huge financial offer,” she said. “I think it’s as simple as money. He said they made him an offer he felt he could not refuse.” 

She added, “He’ll be the only alpha male in William Morris's literary department.”

Suzanne Gluck and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, co-heads of the William Morris literary department, announced their new hire on Friday just as all of publishing prepared to pack into the New School’s Tishman Auditorium for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. The news appeared on The New York Times’ ArtsBeat blog under the headline, “A Star Book Agent’s New Home.” Therein, Ms. Gluck was quoted as saying Mr. Simonoff had been her “dream date” for years.

Three well-placed sources who would not speak for attribution said Ms. Gluck and Ms. Walsh (neither of whom would comment for this article) had been actively looking to add someone of Mr. Simonoff's stature to their ranks for several years. Several industry people—knowledgeable ones, the lot of them, though obviously all too shy to speak on the record—said William Morris could use someone with literary sensibilities who can hit home runs with titles that skew more commercial than the high quality (but often narrowly targeted) stuff that Bill Clegg tends to do.

Publishing people were giddy when they heard about Mr. Simonoff's job change last week, and not even because they were happy for him—though some were—but because it was surprising, and exciting, and an undeniable show of force by William Morris that no one really knew how to explain off the top of their heads. Editors, publishers, agents, everyone wanted to talk about it, and they got into work on Friday still drunk on the news and excited to start calling and emailing one another about it. People asked if a “dominant theory” had emerged, the question invariably coming out sounding hopeful, but also cautious, because no one really wanted the fun to end.

The last time anyone felt this way was in June, when News Corp. fired Jane Friedman. With all that had happened since—the wrenching reorganization of Random House, the closing of Collins—that felt like a lifetime ago. 

"Was I shocked? No,” Ms. Nesbit said on Friday. “I was surprised but not shocked. I think Eric has to spread his wings. Maybe it was all too much like family."

But what exactly was behind Mr. Simonoff’s defection? His colleagues in the industry were left scratching their heads over the weekend.

“There had to have been something material that prompted it,” one editor said. “It’s not something you would do just for the sake of it ‘I just want a change’— agents don’t do it.”

Was it as Ms. Nesbit said? Had William Morris just offered Mr. Simonoff a dizzying amount of money? Or was there more at work—like, say, unresolved succession issues at Janklow & Nesbit that might have caused the famously ambitious agent to lose his patience with the firm and seek out something more secure? 

In a sense, there are two stories here, one about why Mr. Simonoff is joining William Morris, and the other about why he is leaving Janklow.

One theory is that he was tempted by all the perks that come with working for a large multimedia talent agency—namely, access to in-house film and TV agents who can help him not only by selling his adaptation-ready literary properties but also by giving him business whenever one of their celebrity clients wants to write a book.

In an interview Friday, former William Morris literary head Owen Laster, who retired from the firm after 46 years in 2006, said many of the opportunities a large organization with many branches offers are simply not possible at a small, prestige shop like Janklow & Nesbit. He offered that when he was agenting at WMA, he “personally handled many film and television deals” for his clients, and “very often” collaborated with people in other parts of the company.

“That office [Janklow & Nesbitt], although primarily literary, has a pretty wide base, but not like William Morris,” Mr. Laster said. “Their connection with CAA and other offices gives them power in those areas, but at William Morris it’s more direct—it’s our clients.” 

While the possibility of multimedia domination may have certainly appealed to Mr. Simonoff, the real reason behind his decision to leave his longtime home probably had a lot more to do with the murky question of succession at Janklow & Nesbit and the sense of uncertainty that is clouding the agency’s future. 

For one thing, Mr. Janklow is said to have thought seriously about selling the company over the years—and though he has denied it, he has reportedly put a price tag on it that was rebuffed by potential buyers. For another, there is the matter of Mr. Janklow’s 41-year-old son Luke, a former rock singer and current restaurant owner who has in recent years been doing some agenting for his father's shop, and Ms. Nesbit’s daughter Priscilla Gilman—a recovering English professor who recently returned from a nine-month leave of absence during which she wrote a memoir about motherhood.   

Did the presence of the young Mr. Janklow and Ms. Gilman signal to Mr. Simonoff that the agency would always remain a family business? That all the loyalty in the world wasn’t going to make it any more likely that he'd ever be made partner?

Nonsense, according to Ms. Nesbit: “I don’t think it was about succession," she said. "I honestly, genuinely do not think it was about that."

"I think Luke has many strings to his bow,” she added, referring to the young Mr. Janklow’s various non-literary pursuits, which also includes collecting guitars and cars. “I have a very strong alpha male here, you see, in Mort Janklow. Eric felt more comfortable with another younger guy here. I don’t think Luke and Priscilla were in any way a threat to him.”

Regardless of why it happened, Mr. Simonoff’s departure unmistakably leaves Janklow & Nesbit with a future even more uncertain than the one it was already looking forward to, especially considering that whatever finally convinced Mr. Simonoff to flee could conceivably convince Ms. Bennett to do the same.

Several people noted that Ms. Bennett and Mr. Simonoff are the only major players at the agency bringing in new clients and making spectacular sales with any regularity (Update, 5:15PM: It should be noted that just two weeks ago, Ms. Nesbit placed the journalist Andrew Meier's The House of Morgenthau with Random House, and before that sold a memoir by young Iraq veteran Christopher Brownfield to Knopf). Mr. Simonoff has Ms. Lahiri and Edward P. Jones, for example, and in January, he showed his muscle when he sold Danielle Trussoni’s debut novel Angelology in a hotly contested auction for nearly $1 million. Ms. Bennett, in turn, represents Malcolm Gladwell, Fareed Zakaria, Laura Hillenbrand, Eric Schlosser and many others. Sure, the elder Mr. Janklow can still do a multimillion-dollar eight-book deal for Danielle Steele with his eyes closed when he wants to, and Ms. Nesbit is still putting up dizzying numbers with her Tom Wolfe and her Anne Rice sales. But as one publisher put it, “they’re not taking on new people. What’s the future?” 

That publisher, along with other executives, speculated on Friday about whether Mr. Simonoff’s departure might inspire Ms. Bennett to look for other work, or whether it would instead have the effect of forcing some of the succession issues at the agency to the fore.  

Though unlikely, Ms. Bennett could conceivably follow Mr. Simonoff to William Morris. Said one knowledgeable agent, “Jennifer Walsh used to say, 'I'll get Tina Bennett over here—Watch me.’”

Ms. Nesbit sounded cool as a cucumber when confronted with that scenario Friday. "I expect Tina to be here forever,” she said.

Ms. Bennett declined to comment for this article.

"So, I hear you've written a book about me," Sam tells Mr. Dillard.

"No, Sam, why would I do that? I've written a book about me," Mr. Dillard replies. "You are merely a character in my life-one of hundreds-and I don't believe I'm unflattering."

"All the same," Sam says, "you don't have the right to tell my story.'"

Sam's concerns about the book aren't limited to himself. "And what about Bear?" he asks. "Don't you think you could hurt his career?" In In the Flesh , Bear (a pseudonym), "the head of a major studio" and "the industry genius," also merits his own chapter.

Mr. Dillard's reply to Sam: "Somehow I find the concept of my jeopardizing the careers of either of you guys just plain ludicrous."

Sam was dead serious, however, as Mr. Dillard eventually learned. As he writes in the same chapter, In the Flesh , originally scheduled to be published by E.P. Dutton & Company in 1993, was "crunched by Hollywood lawyers, compliments of the Bear, Sam, and Dolly."

Dutton really did drop Mr. Dillard's book in 1993, and the press coverage that ensued offers a key to Mr. Dillard's thinly disguised characters. In the summer of 1993, attorneys Bert Fields, representing David Geffen and Barry Diller, and Gerald Edelstein, representing Dolly Parton, sent threatening letters to Mr. Dillard and Dutton warning that portions of In the Flesh were defamatory and therefore actionable. The attorneys' letters had the desired effect.

Thunder's Mouth Press reportedly considered taking on the book but then passed, and Mr. Dillard-who requested that he be interviewed via e-mail-wrote to The Transom that St. Martin's Press, Harper San Francisco and Crown Publishing Group showed interest.

"The latter publishers were all bunglers, or just plain too nellie to go on with the project," Mr. Dillard continued in his e-mail. "It had seemed as though the book would not get printed. I was also getting tired of people calling me from New York saying there was a hit out on me."

Almost five years later, a likely publisher has rescued Mr. Dillard's book at an unlikely time. Barricade Books will publish In the Flesh this month, making it the latest in a long line of books-such as The Anarchist Cookbook and Barbara Hutton's biography, Poor Little Rich Girl -that other houses considered too hot to handle, but that Lyle Stuart, Barricade's owner and president, did not.

It is the timing of the publication of In the Flesh that has some publishing insiders watching Barricade with a mixture of awe and disbelief. In August, the house was order to pay more than $3 million to casino owner Steve Wynn, who'd launched a libel suit against Barricade in a Nevada state court. At issue was catalogue copy describing Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las Vegas Casino King Steve Wynn , by John L. Smith. Barricade published the unauthorized biography in November 1995; the libelous copy stated that the book "details why a confidential Scotland Yard report calls Wynn a front man for the Genovese crime family."

Because Mr. Stuart, who is the owner of Barricade, did not carry libel insurance, he was unable to post a bond that would have kept Mr. Wynn from moving to collect his award while Mr. Stuart pursued an appeal. (Mr. Wynn has also sued Messrs. Stuart and Smith in Kentucky, this time over the contents of the book.)

So in October, Mr. Wynn's attorneys got a restraining order that barred Barricade from distributing any of its titles.

In response, both Mr. Stuart and Barricade filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October; this has enabled them to resume business as usual. And the upcoming publication of Mr. Dillard's book is a sign that Barricade has not been cowed by Mr. Wynn. "You operate as you always did," said the 75-year-old Mr. Stuart, whose more than 40 years in publishing included working as the business manager for E.C. Comics and converting its Mad comic book into Mad Magazine . Mr. Stuart said he was warned that "there would be a lot of pressure" if Barricade published Mr. Dillard's book. "We don't owe anybody anything," he told The Transom. "The pressure [on this book] was not because it was a dishonest book, but because they didn't want this. Barry Diller didn't want this." Messrs. Geffen and Diller did not return phone calls; Mr. Fields had no comment.

While Mr. Fields fired shots across Dutton's bow, Mr. Stuart said that "so far, it's been very quiet" for Barricade. That may have something to do with the decision to change Mr. Geffen's and Mr. Diller's names. Diane Von Furstenberg has disappeared altogether. From manuscript to an early galley, Marlo Thomas becomes Sandra Williams-"somewhere between Sherry Lewis and Elizabeth Montgomery." Dolly Parton remains Dolly Parton, however, as does Barbra Streisand. Mr. Dillard's sexual descriptions are a little too ribald to print in this column. But he says that "although Dolly's desire for the Bear became all too obvious, there was never a trace of resentment or discourtesy allowed toward me." Ms. Streisand, with whom he learned to ski, fares less well; she looks like "any frumpy middle-aged housewife."

"For a moment," said Mr. Stuart, "I thought of changing [the names] back." He then added that he finds the pseudonymous approach "a little classier. We're not trying to hurt them. We're trying to show a life style."

Some who have read the galleys of In the Flesh point out that Mr. Dillard's celebrity affairs actually constitute only a handful of chapters and that while the book has no shortage of Honcho -esque moments, it is actually better written than the typical tell-all, in the style of Julia Phillips' You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again .

The book begins with Mr. Dillard's father tearfully dropping him off, amid a February downpour, at an on-ramp to Interstate 40 in North Carolina, as the young Dillard begins his hitchhike west to California. By the time he left home, Mr. Dillard had already published two collections of poetry. (His total now stands at seven collections and one anthology-which is called Between the Cracks . He was for a time known as the Naked Poet: He gave readings in the nude.) He starred in a gay porn film called Track Meet that, as they say in Hollywood, had legs. Prostitution followed. Mr. Dillard, who is 43, said he has been H.I.V.-positive for about 15 years.

In the Flesh , he wrote, "is a sort of travelogue of West Hollywood through the 70's and 80's, a spiritual coming-of-age tale. Let's say The Teachings of Don Juan cum Kerouac's On the Road meets Out on a Limb With Shirl "-as in MacLaine. "It is being billed as a kiss-and-tell, but I have skipped most of the kisses and gone straight for the gonads of life and society.… The book reads as a modern myth, as any good autobiography should."

He now lives on the coast of northern California, and said that one reason he wrote the book was that "I needed some means of processing the wild and wicked life from which I had extracted myself. Writing as therapy."

He added that his first attempt was to "create a pillow book-fictionalize the names," but he found that "impossible." At the time, Mr. Dillard was still at Dutton and, he explained, his editor there agreed that real names should be used. "I put my integrity on the line and considered it a given of fame that the public image is just that, a public image. When you create an icon, that icon belongs to the world," Mr. Dillard wrote to The Transom. "Dolly [Parton] is a prime example of that."

In terms of the explicitness of his book, Mr. Dillard wrote, "As far as what is private versus what is not, that's touchy. My editors were very cautious, on ethical grounds, to have me remove anything that they thought might be considered mean-spirited. I agreed. But how do you describe a relationship without a taste of the intimate," Mr. Dillard wondered. "How do you write without a taste of the forbidden?"

Publishing a taste of the forbidden while in Chapter 11 bankruptcy seems particularly fearless. Then again, those advising the publisher contend that Mr. Stuart and Barricade's bankruptcies will be short-lived once Barricade's appeal is heard by the Nevada State Supreme Court. Barricade's corporate counsel, Dominic Gentile, will be handling that appeal, probably in March.

To that end, attorney Laura Handman, a partner with Lankenau, Kovner, Kurtz & Outten in Washington, D.C., is readying an amicus curiae brief on behalf of numerous amici in support of Barricade that will be filed with the appeal and will at minimum bear the names of Time Inc., The New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal , the Nevada Press Association, the Bloomberg Organization, the Carol Publishing Group and PEN.

"I think it's fair to say that Lyle Stuart has never shied away from controversy, but the price that is being paid here for that courage is basically closure. And that's a price that the First Amendment doesn't countenance," said Ms. Handman.

The judge presiding over Barricade's Nevada trial reportedly ruled that because the Scotland Yard report was confidential, the catalogue statement did not fall under the protection of the "fair report" privilege that protects publishers from being held liable for errors in government reports.

"What he did in relying on a nonfinal confidential foreign report of an authority no less than Scotland Yard is something that reporters in every medium do every day of the week without being called upon to research whether what the officials reported was accurate," said Ms. Handman.

Mr. Stuart said simply, "I was hometowned."

The publisher noted that Mr. Dillard seemed doubtful that Barricade would publish his book. "He's absolutely paranoid," chuckled Mr. Stuart.

But Mr. Dillard explained that when his new publisher "got chomped for three mil" shortly after he signed with them and then, he added, "the street exploded in front of their building"-a reference to the water main break on lower Fifth Avenue where Barricade's offices are located-"it wasn't just Hollywood hit men I feared. It was my own gods."

W' s Esterhazy Dragged Into the 90's

What does W magazine's fictional social battle-ax Louise J. Esterhazy look like? The answer surprised even her alter ego, editor-at-large John Fairchild.

On Feb. 8, the Council of Fashion Designers of America will present Mr. Fairchild with a lifetime achievement award at its annual awards show. The problem is, Mr. Fairchild will be celebrating his uncle's 94th birthday and won't be in the audience. So the C.F.D.A. arranged for Mr. Fairchild to be videotaped being interviewed at his favorite haunt, the Four Seasons restaurant, by New York Times fashion columnist Amy Spindler.

At the end of the segment, a drag queen dressed as Ms. Esterhazy (whose column caricature resembles Barbara Bush) was supposed to show up and present the award to Mr. Fairchild. But the fur-clad participant that the director, Brad Abrams, hired left Mr. Fairchild a bit taken aback. "Everyone was expecting Mrs. Doubtfire and, basically, it was RuPaul," said Ms. Spindler, who told Mr. Fairchild, "It's like Secrets & Lies . Louise has been black all this time and no one knew it." The Transom hears that the scene has been reshot using a more Esterhazyan drag queen. C.F.D.A. executive director Fern Mallis would only say: "As we all know, Louise can be very difficult, so she sent an impostor to throw us off the track. In the end, we finally convinced her to participate." Mr. Fairchild told The Transom that he found the whole thing "very funny."

The Transom Also Hears

… In a strongly-worded letter dated Dec. 15 and obtained by The Transom, Mort Janklow, the literary agent who represents the likes of Danielle Steel, Sidney Sheldon and Barbara Taylor Bradford, chastises publishing executives for leaking book manuscripts to Hollywood idea-hunters.

"The sources of most of the leaks have been well known for years," writes Mr. Janklow, "and efforts to plug them have been only modestly successful." In his letter, Mr. Janklow, a partner of the veteran Janklow & Nesbit Associates, declines to name any of the culprits, but he continues: "We are sick and tired of having unauthorized submissions made to places where we would not have wanted the film or television show made; to executives who are not our choice, and by producers who essentially stole the material.… [T]he rights of the author, who after all has originated the material, are routinely disregarded by alleged professionals in this community acting in their own selfish and limited interests."

Copies of the missive were distributed to "every major publisher in New York," according to Mr. Janklow's cover letter, and he is certainly not without supporters. David Gernert, editor and agent to novelist John Grisham, several of whose manuscripts have been leaked, said he almost always gets a call "probably within 48 hours [of the manuscript] being finished."

International Creative Management agent Amanda (Binky) Urban said, "This has become a pervasive problem that is undermining the work of our clients. I am in support of the letter." However, Roger Straus, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc., called Mr. Janklow's letter "ridiculous."

Mr. Janklow himself declined to discuss the letter-which was leaked to The Transom.

-Kate Kelly