Powerhouse

James Andrew Miller, author of oral histories of ESPN and Saturday Night Live, tells the story of Creative Artists Agency, founded in 1975 when five employees left William Morris to start their own talent agency. CAA went on to represent stars such as Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg and to reach into television, music, sports, advertising and investment banking. Miller had access to the people who built and fought with the agency, among them rival Ari Emanuel and the co-founders Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz, as well as financial figures not made public before. The account is told largely in the voices of those who were there, and a later edition added an afterword.

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, was reported to have it on his summer reading in 2017.