Who

Jackson owns the one-woman Melanie Jackson Agency, through which she represents her husband, famed author Thomas Pynchon, and various other well-known writers.

Backstory

Long before Thomas Pynchon came into her life, Jackson already had several kin who'd made the history books: She's the great-granddaughter of rough-ridin' President Teddy Roosevelt, the granddaughter of Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, and the daughter of noted attorney William Jackson, advisor to the likes of Nelson Rockefeller, Jackie O, and the King of Morocco. By 1984, when Pynchon's short story collection Slow Learner was published, she'd become Pynchon's agent; six years later, they married. She's since acted as the all-around gatekeeper to the notoriously hermitic Pynchon, brokering his book deals, of course (most recently she sold 2006's Against the Day to Ann Godoff's Penguin Press imprint), but also vigorously rejecting the requests he receives for interviews and sorting through his fan mail. And while Jackson's most closely associated with Pynchon, she's represented several other prominent writers at her boutique agency, including Cynthia Ozick, biographer Ron Chernow, Nigerian Nobel Prize recipient Wole Soyinka, and Rick Moody.

Personal

The year after they married, Jackson and Pynchon had a son, Jackson Pynchon. (Yes, it's a combination of their last names.) Jackson's Facebook.com profile notes that his favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut.

Habitat

Pynchon and Jackson have long cultivated an air of secrecy regarding their whereabouts. In case you're wondering, they live in the West 70s.