Legendary Literary Scout Maria Campbell Talks About Balance (Or The Lack Thereof)  
When we enter the office of Maria Campbell Associates on Park Avenue South, we are met with the focused faces of three young women propped up behind computer screens. At first glance, this could be the anteroom to any corporate office and these three women could be any of the thousands of corporate associates that fill revolving chairs up and down Manhattan. But the pile of heavy leather-bound books that hold up the computer monitor on one of the women’s desks gives away the true purpose of the office: this is not a place of numbers (though reports of major financial successes pour in daily) but of words. Maria Campbell Associates is a top literary consulting company in New York City. The company has clients in thirteen countries and is the exclusive literary representative for Warner Bros. Pictures. The company scouts fiction and non-fiction originally written in English for translation and/or adaptation into feature films. One of the young women brings us coffee while we wait for Maria. Soon enough she breezes in through the front door, a tour-de-force in pink. Can we wait one moment more? Of course we can. We have cappuccinos and a great view of the office dynamic from where we’re sitting. Halfway out of her coat and into her office, Maria says, it seems to no one in particular, to call José in Milan. It’s urgent. One of the associates begins to dial while another conspicuously rolls her eyes: there’s no doubt of who’s in charge here. Founded by Maria Campbell in 1982, after over a decade of work for the Italian media conglomerate Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Maria Campbell Associates remains very much her brainchild, and her baby. “I don’t have a good work-life balance. My work has always been my life. And I’ve loved it.” Maria Campbell, a first-generation Italian immigrant whose parents remained Italian citizens their entire lives, worked hard to get where she is today. “Woody (Maria's husband Woodrow Campbell) and I both started with zero. We had no family money, we just had our salaries. We earned our life. In all respects.” Maria Campbell admits that her passion and dedication may rub off on the work climate at the office. “I think we work harder than most people here. And part of that is because of me. I don’t have a good work-life balance. My work has always been my life. And I’ve loved it." The intense work-schedule is also due to the nature of the field she’s in. “I work with clients in all parts of the world. There is never a moment in the day when a client of ours is not awake and working somewhere around the world. That’s really a terrifying thought because most people do have somebody who may be awake, but who isn’t working. We actually have people whose whole day is happening during our night. The other thing is that, being in publishing, there’s always something to read. It’s like having homework for the rest of your life. You have your course reading, then you have all of the other reading that of course it would be a really good idea to do if you want to do well in the course. I think that is a really good comparison. The reading is something that you can’t do at the office. So, you’re reading all the time. You’re reading at night, on the weekends, in stolen little bits of time. It’s really a pretty full-on job.” What do you look for in an employee? “For me, the ideal worker is somebody who fully engages. That means that they are present in the moment. I think that most people here work at least 9-6. And people tend to stay later if necessary. I think that the thing that I’m looking for are people that love to read and love to write and have a critical point of view. It’s the people who also volunteer to do things, who say, ‘oh, I want to read that book. Let me take it and I’ll try to read 100 pages tonight,’ and then they come back the next day and have an idea. It’s not a job for the faint of heart. I always say you need two years in the office: one year to learn and one year to do your job.” We noticed most of your employees are women. Any particular reason why? She smiles, “I happen to like women. I think that women are really smart. And I also find women—and this sounds sexist—more complete than men. I always feel that they’re somehow 365 degrees as opposed to 180 or 220 or even 300, in the best-case scenario for men.” What about if they get pregnant, isn’t that a worry you take into consideration?
“I have an office with mostly women, so it’s something I’m obviously prepared to deal with, but I haven’t had to. I would give a 3 month paid maternity leave.” When we ask if she thinks her employees know that, she answers, “I’ve never discussed it with anybody but one employee and no one has asked me. The one person I talked to was by my initiation.” “I’ve always been clear on the fact that my work predated my identity as a wife and as a mother.”
You have two children yourself. How did you make the balance work while pushing forward with your career and running your own company?
“I experience much of the same ambition that men do. And I was greatly supported by my husband who never thought I shouldn’t be as ambitious in my own professional life as he was in his. So, in a way, I really was privileged. Obviously, I married him for all sorts of reasons, including that I thought he had the makings of a really great husband. There were bumps along the road, but I’ve always been clear on the fact that my work predated my identity as a wife and as a mother. And my work was always important to me. It was my first experience of myself as an independent person. So, I held onto that. “But I was completely gob smacked when I had Alexander (her first child). I had no idea what to expect. I was more terrified than I realized and I ran back to the office. I wound up taking less than 2 months as a maternity leave. I just felt overwhelmed. I felt I had lost my identity entirely. I just felt like I was a failure. And instead, at work, I could do it. I felt like the day was so much easier here in the office! I just kept telling myself to pull up my socks and get on with it. But part of being a mother is you blame yourself for everything. The guilt weighs heavily, especially on a working mother.”
 ![]() What do you think is the most important factor in making balancing career and family work, despite the challenges?
“The key, ultimately, to doing it all, is having a great partner. I think it’s as simple as that. Two can do it. It’s really hard for one. And we never really sat down and said: this is what a mother does and this is what a father does. Ever. In the same way, we never said: this is what a woman does and this is what a man does. Ever. Looking back on it, I think we have one of the most genderless marriages that I know.”
Maria speaks as much with her hands as with her mouth, and the gestures get bigger and more energetic as she speaks about her husband, Woodrow Campbell, who is a partner at Debevoise and Plimpton LLP and somewhat of a legend within private equity.
“The one pact that Woody and I made to each other, was that we would both not quit our jobs at the same time and that we would both try not to have professional meltdowns at the same time, so that we could always feel that we were independent. That if worse came to worse, one could bail and make a dramatic change and the other would carry the weight until the other partner was back on his or her feet again. So again, it is all about a twosome. I mean I know that people do it as a onesome a lot, but if you can do it as a twosome, in every respect you’re ahead. I really didn’t know then, because I was a little young at the time, but finding someone good for me involved finding someone that would truly be my life’s partner with whom I could realize myself in my fullest way. That, ultimately, Woody was as invested in me being the best Maria Campbell in the world as I was in him being the best Woodrow Campbell in the world. And that’s pretty much it.”
Given your successful career and the non-traditional gender dynamic in your own family life, how do you feel about stay-at-home moms?
“I think that it’s very individual. I have to say that I only know one person who has been a full time mom, and is happy being a full time mom, and has never deviated. And that person has a large independent income and is always involved in sports and crafts and keeps a busy life. Everyone else, because I’m in a phase where people are faced with the empty nest syndrome, has gotten out to get a job after their kids grew up. And if not, are desperate to find something to do. I think it’s when the children are grown and you’re left with this time and this space and this identity that has so consumed you- that’s when you really need to ask the question: how do you feel? “Be smart. Be flexible. Be intuitive.”
“For myself, I wish I had taken more time, but I don’t regret, ultimately, the decisions I’ve made. If I were advising someone who worked for me who had some ambiguity and said, ‘My child is one years old and I really want to be there,’ I would say: ‘Do it. See what it is like. And trust yourself to come back to the workforce.’ I think people need to follow what their instincts are and not make themselves feel guilty one way or the other. I am talking of course from a privileged point of view, and ultimately, the financial issue overrides everything. Now we’re in a society where you need two incomes and there isn’t much choice. But philosophically, and if finances permit you, you really have to follow your heart and be true to yourself. And you also have to deal with your own motherhood and you have to deal with your own child. There are children who are needier than others and you know that almost at the outset.”
What were the difficulties of re-entering the work force after taking time off to care for children?
“It depends on what you are willing to sacrifice financially and also what job you’re entering into. I think that companies are getting to be more and more flexible about women working part-time and keeping their hand in. I know that at my husband’s law firm he has more women working for him than any other partner. I know that he’s had people go on maternity leave and that he’s totally, totally cool about it. Of course it’s a very large law firm. But even here: if someone were to have a child and they had worked well and hard and were acting in good faith and said ‘I really need time,’ I think I could deal with it. I don’t think I could deal with it for years, but I could try to get somebody to do maternity leave cover for a while, which they do in Britain for instance. There are so many things that other countries have that we don’t have in the states and that we need to work on.”
How do you recommend that young people plan ahead? “It’s tough. If you’re lucky enough to know what you want to do, and you’re lucky enough to be in a place where you can do that, I think that you should pursue it completely. If you’re again lucky enough to be in a relationship that is meaningful and looks like it’s a partnership that could be for life and you want to have children, you need to give that its due. But the order that I would definitely do it in is: work flat out and establish yourself first because that will stand you in good stead. No matter what happens. You will have a relationship with, ideally, a good employer, you’ll have a good, solid start in what moves you, and when it comes time to have a child you’ll be able to approach that with security in yourself because you’ve established a professional identity.  “It is very hard to predict how a woman is going to react to a child, or how a man is going to react to a child, so giving advice in advance is almost impossible. Because there are some women, like me, who run back to the office. If somebody told me that would have been my reaction, I would have felt like they were accusing me of being a denatured woman. So, I think that everybody needs to sort of be kind to themselves and not expect a prescribed reaction to motherhood or fatherhood. I don’t think there are any right or wrong ways but I myself would say that for both men and women, to have work that they care about and that they have some success in under their belt before approaching parenthood is not a bad idea.
Your two children who are now in their twenties. What do you think the work-culture is like for them? “I think it’s much harder. I think that the workplace is more volatile- the whole structure of making a career in one company is completely out the window. There are so many kids now who really have to be entrepreneurial in order to work. It’s not just a matter of finding what they want to do but it’s a matter of inventing what they want to do, which I never had to worry about.”
And finally, what can employers do to positively affect the current working climate? “Be smart. Be flexible. Be intuitive. Be ahead of the problems. Really know the people who work with you. Help them to realize work in a way that is fitting in with their lives. And respect them for having lives. And help them to maintain them.” As we head back out to the anteroom and say our goodbyes, we look at the young women behind their computer stations, frenetically typing away the afternoon hours, and hope they know all the good advice, and good intention, that is harbored behind that feared door to the corner office. One person has commented on this article.  1. Maria's one male employeeGuest User, UnregisteredMaria Campbell does have one male employee. His name is Erik and he is very smart and handsome. God bless him for dealing with an office full of women all day! |
