literary executor

noun

A person acting on behalf of beneficiaries (e.g. family members, a designated charity, a research library or archive) under the author's will.

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Meanings

nounliterary executor (plural literary executors)

plural literary executors

  1. lawA person acting on behalf of beneficiaries (e.g. family members, a designated charity, a research library or archive) under the author's will.

    Albert Bigelow Paine, his biographer to be and literary executor, who has been constantly with him, said that for the last year at least Mr. Clemens had been weary of life. When Richard Watson Gilder died, he said: "How fortunate he is. No good fortune of that kind ever comes to me."

    1910 April 22, “Mark Twain is Dead at 74”, in New York Times
Cite this entry
APA

literary executor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literary%20executor

MLA

“literary executor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literary%20executor. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “literary executor,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literary%20executor.

Source: literary executor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.