Albert Zuckerman, a literary agent who nurtured a long string of writers, including Ken Follett, Stephen Hawking and Michael Lewis, to bestseller stardom, died on March 5 at his home in Manhattan. He was 94.

Mr. Zuckerman founded his literary agency, Writers House, in 1973. He expanded quickly and, by the end of the decade, was operating from a Victorian Gothic rowhouse near Union Square. He had a knack for finding promising writers who, with a few pointers, could become rock stars. The Zuckerman approach was not for everyone. He would often put his writers through three or more rounds of revisions before trying to sell their books.

“People warned me, if you go with Al Zuckerman, he’s extremely hands on,” the novelist Jenny White said in an interview. But the result was better, even though I was tearing my hair out.”