[1][2] Donadio was referred to in the mid-1960s as part of what Esquire called the "red-hot center" of contemporary literature, after shepherding books such as Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961), Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death (1963), and Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963) through successful publishing campaigns.
[6][7] After some time, Donadio convinced the literary magazine New World Writing to accept the first chapter, which increased Heller's confidence in the work.
[citation needed] Donadio and Heller decided to go with Simon & Schuster, in part due to the enthusiasm of then-editorial assistant Robert Gottlieb.
[9] Donadio helped negotiate the sale of his first book, Goodbye, Columbus to Houghton Mifflin, boosting the publisher's advance offer from $1,000 to $2,500 by leveraging a counteroffer from Viking Press.
[8] She founded her own namesake literary agency after leaving Russell & Volkening, which later bore the name of agents such as Eric Ashworth and Neil Olson.
[16] In 1984, Donadio sold 120 letters written by Pynchon to herself between 1962 and 1983 to Carter Burden for $45,000 via Santa Barbara book dealer Ralph Sipper.