Starling Lawrence

Starling Ransome Lawrence (March 11, 1943 – August 21, 2025) was an American editor who spent 55 years with the book publisher W. W. Norton & Company.

Early life Starling Ransome Lawrence was born on March 11, 1943, in Manhattan, New York, to investment counselor James F. Lawrence and Barbara Lawrence. His mother was a trustee of the Foxcroft School in Virginia and a board member for the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. Lawrence spent most of his summers and weekends on the Norfolk, Connecticut, estate of his maternal great-grandfather, Charles A. Coffin, the founder of General Electric.

Lawrence was known for recognizing the potential of overlooked manuscripts, purchasing the rights to Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker and Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm when neither author was able to secure offers elsewhere.

After visiting then-obscure English novelist Patrick O'Brian's agent in London, Lawrence read The Reverse of the Medal on his return journey and convinced Norton to acquire the rights to O'Brian's novels within the United States. This publishing deal helped popularize Master and Commander, which was ultimately adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

In 2011, Lawrence was succeeded as editor-in-chief by John Glusman while remaining an editor-at-large until his death.

Lawrence wrote four books of his own, beginning with Legacies in 1996, an anthology of short stories praised by The New York Times for its complex characters. His second book, Montenegro, was published in 1997. In 2006, he wrote The Lightning Keeper, a novel about the role of electricity during the Industrial Revolution, which reviewers interpreted as inspired by his family's relation to General Electric.