Literature for Sale
New York: New York PublIc Library, 1941. Side-stapled pamphlet, measuring 7 x 4.5 inches: [2], 35, [3]. Original tan paper wrappers titled in black.
First edition of this 1941 talk by pioneering American literary agent Ann Watkins (1885-1967), the sixth of the R.R. Bowker Memorial Lectures at the New York Public Library. At the time of the lecture, Watkins had been working as an agent for more than thirty years, after an apprenticeship on the editorial side. She traces the transformation of the American publishing contract from “a gentleman’s agreement -- I use the word advisedly” to a more complicated negotiation of global markets, turbo-charged by the rise of the film industry: “No Klondike gold rush was ever more spectacular than those early Hollywood days.” Watkins concludes with a warning about the low bar to entry in the field, given the financial risks assumed by both agent and client: “From the first we gamble with the author, backed by no other judgment than our own on how great a gamble that may be.” The firm Watkins founded in 1907 survives today as the Watkins/Loomis Agency; her personal client list included Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, William Saroyan, Ayn Rand, and Kay Boyle. A fine copy of a compelling document.
Price: $100.00