Who is Clay Gladmore from Factotum and what is their importance?

Clay Gladmore is the editor of Frontfire magazine, America's premier literary magazine, and discoverer of William Saroyan and others, Gladmore receives most of Henry Chiaski's hand-printed stories, and rejects them all until he reads "My Beeerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than All the Dead Christmas Trees of the World". Gladmore pays $25 per story.