Curtis Brown (Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency) is a literary and talent agency based in London, UK. It was founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown.
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Albert Curtis Brown was an American journalist who was the London correspondent for New York Press. He also ran a press syndication agency. Because of his 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.
During this period, Brown carried out agency business on behalf of a large number of well-known writers such as Kenneth Grahame, AA Milne and DH Lawrence. It also worked on behalf of prominent figures of the day including Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and President Woodrow Wilson.
In 1995, Jonathan Lloyd was recruited from publishers Harper Collins to become managing director and two years later Nick Marston joined from rival agents AP Watt to begin a new film, theatre and television department.
The company underwent a management buy out in 2002, when agents (Jonny Geller, Ben Hall, Jonathan Lloyd, Nick Marston and Peter Robinson), bought the company from the senior staff at the agency. Lloyd remained as managing director and subsequently became CEO. Robinson left in 2006 to form a solo agency.[1]
In 2008, Curtis Brown and ICM NY Books inked a deal for Curtis Brown to represent ICM’s clients in the UK and across the world.[2]