Curtis Brown is a literary and talent agency based in London, UK. One of the oldest literary agencies in Europe, it was founded by Albert Curtis Brown in 1899. It is part of The Curtis Brown Group of companies.[1]
Albert Curtis Brown was an American journalist who was the London correspondent for The New York Press. He also ran a press syndication agency. Because of his extensive contacts in both the UK and America, he fell into representing authors who were looking for publishing opportunities on the two continents.
The first deal he transacted was selling serial rights in John Oliver Hobbes’s The Vineyard. The literary agency element of Brown’s business was accommodated alongside his press agency in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In 1914, Curtis Brown opened its first international office in New York; subsequently, offices were opened in Paris, Berlin, Milan and Copenhagen. Brown believed in the exchange of literature between countries as a point of principle to foster international understanding. The company retains a translation rights department to this day.
Curtis Brown wrote an autobiography called Contacts – published by Cassell in 1935. He ran the agency until 1935 when he was succeeded by his son Spencer Curtis Brown. Spencer ran the agency until his retirement in 1968 when he sold it to an investment company.
In 1953 Spencer Curtis Brown Black head hunted Kitty Black and she became chief play reader at Curtis Brown. She played golf and used her connections to find clients that included Somerset Maugham and Samuel Beckett.[3] She was involved with the noted production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1956. She notably told John Osborne to "think again" about his play Look Back in Anger (1956) that would later transform British theatre.[4]
The agency was bought back by its management team in 1982.
In 1995, Jonathan Lloyd was recruited from the publishers HarperCollins to become managing director and two years later Nick Marston joined from rival agents AP Watt to begin the new film, theatre and television department.
A further buy-out in 2001-2002 resulted in the present ownership of the agency by its management.[citation needed]
Recent history
Curtis Brown underwent a management buyout in 2002 then senior.
In 2008, Curtis Brown and ICM (International Creative Management) signed a deal for Curtis Brown to represent ICM’s clients in the UK and across the world.[5]
In addition to its books, actors, presenters, theatre and television departments, the company has a film production arm launched in 2008, Cuba Pictures.
In May 2012, the company restructured its management team with Jonathan Lloyd becoming Chairman and with Ben Hall and Jonny Geller becoming joint Chief Executives.[6] Curtis Brown also runs a creative writing school, Curtis Brown Creative.[7]
In March 2013, Curtis Brown acquired a major stake in leading literary agency Conville and Walsh, finally acquiring the company in early 2015.[8][9][10]
The Curtis Brown Prize was established in 2006 in memory of agent Giles Gordon (1940-2003).[1] Worth £1,500, it is awarded annually for the best writer of prose fiction on the University of East Anglia MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) course, based on the material submitted by students for their MA assessment. The winner is chosen by a panel of Curtis Brown agents from a shortlist comprising all students in the year who achieve an MA with distinction.[15] The inaugural award was made to Joe Dunthorne in 2006 for his novel Submarine. Other recipients are: Tamara Britten (2007), Daniel Timms (2008), Lauren Owen (2009), Gillian Daly (2010), Chelsey Flood (2011), Charlotte Stretch (2012).[1]
Related Research Articles
1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1955th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 955th year of the 2nd millennium, the 55th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1950s decade.
Tring Park School or Tring Park School for the Performing Arts is a co-educational, independent day and boarding school in Tring, Hertfordshire, England. The school combines academia with vocational courses in the performing arts for pupils aged 8–19. All prospective pupils are required to attend an audition to determine admission, with the exception of those in the Prep School. Around 1 in every 7 applicants are successful.
Edward Hibbert is an American-born British actor and literary agent. He played Gil Chesterton in the TV series Frasier, later reprising the role in 2024. He also voiced Zazu in several installments in The Lion King franchise, replacing Rowan Atkinson who voiced Zazu in the first movie.
Rachel, meaning "ewe", is a feminine given name of Hebrew origin, popularized by the biblical figure Rachel, the wife of Israelite patriarch Jacob.
Nighthawks was an Irish television series broadcast on Network 2. It was presented by Shay Healy. It was part of the major re-brand of RTÉ Two as Network 2 in 1988.
Stacy, sometimes spelled Stacey, Staci, Stacie, or Stacii, is a common first name for women and men. It is also sometimes used as a surname.
Aylin Tezel is a German actress, writer and director. She was born in Bünde. Her father is a Turkish-born medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany, and her mother is a nurse. She is a middle child, having an older sister and a younger brother. She had her breakthrough with a main role in the film Almanya - Welcome to Germany which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and with the main role in the film Am Himmel der Tag, for which she received the Best Actress Award at the Torino Film Festival in 2012. In 2023 she released her directorial debut Falling Into Place which won the award of the International Federation of Film Critics, known as the FIPRESCI Prize, at the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
Tracy, as a British personal name, was originally adopted from Norman surnames such as those of the family de Tracy or de Trasci from Tracy-Bocage in Normandy, France. Derived from the Gaulish male name Draccios, or Latin Thracius, and the well-identified Celtic suffix -āko, such Norman surnames themselves sprung from several Tracy place-names in France.
↑ "Black, Dorothy [Kitty] (1914–2006), theatrical agent and translator | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/97548
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
