The literary agent Deborah Rogers, who represented writers including AS Byatt, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Peter Carey has died suddenly.

Rogers worked as an agent all her professional life, starting with Peter Janson-Smith in the 1960s, before setting up her own agency in 1967. Rogers, Coleridge and White – as it became – worked with a host of prize-winning authors from Angela Carter to Bruce Chatwin and from Thomas Keneally to Jenny Uglow.

Her colleague Peter Straus, who joined Rogers at RCW in 2002, lamented her "untimely death" and paid tribute to her as the "greatest literary agent of her generation".

"She was the most extraordinary person," he said. "The world without Deborah is totally unimaginable. She defined literary taste."

Rogers was deeply embedded in literary culture, serving both as president of the Association of Authors' Agents, on the management committee of the Man Booker prize and on the committee that established the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. She became the first agent honoured with the London Book Fair's lifetime achievement award earlier this year. Speaking on the occasion of the award, the chair of Penguin Random House UK, Gail Rebuck, called Rogers a "legendary agent" and hailed her "unsurpassed contribution" to publishing.

"Her entrepreneurial spirit in setting up an agency in the 1960s and seeing it grow successfully, adding brilliant new agents over the years is beyond compare," Rebuck said. "Deborah is equally known for nurturing the careers of an enviable list of authors where her genius has been not only to negotiate and develop their careers with their chosen publishers, but also to care passionately about every aspect of their lives. Deborah also has an unfailing eye for recognising and encouraging editorial talent."

For McEwan, speaking at the same event, Rogers never fit the archetype of the "hard-edged, calculating agent".

"She's looked after me for most of my writing life, and I think I'm beginning to understand that her genius as an agent is simply an extension of her character," he said. "To her writers she extends infinite care, kindness, hospitality, patience, fierce loyalty, very sound critical judgement and good taste. To the publishers she deals with, she offers much the same, which is how she generally comes away with what she wants."

A skilled negotiator, Rogers combined a resolute defence of her writers' interests with a keen eye for new talent. Speaking on the occasion of her LBF award, she saluted the work of colleagues at RCW and beyond who "shared our values, celebrated our authors, rejoiced in their writing and furthered our mutual interests".

"But most important of all are the writers themselves with whom I have had the privilege of working and without whom none of this would have been possible," she said. "Those who have entrusted their work to us over the years will never know the intense pride that they have brought, and the anticipation and excitement that greets each new manuscript never palls. I have them to thank most of all."

She is survived by her husband, the composer Michael Berkeley, their daughter Jessica and grandson Nathaniel.