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The Middle Man: The Adventures of a Literary Agent
Barcelona. 20 cm. 252 p., 1 h. Encuadernación en tapa dura de editorial con sobrecubierta ilustrada. Traducido por Amparo García Burgos. Agentes literarios .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8425303567
223 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 5, 2016
Publishers, literary agents, and booksellers play a creative and dynamic role in literary culture, and memoirs by industry figures invariably broaden our understanding of literary production and circulation. Paul Reynolds Jnr worked with authors and public figures ranging from P.G. Wodehouse and Ernest Hemingway to William Shirer and Malcolm X; his duties involved not just negotiating sales to publishers and film studios, but also helping authors to gestate their ideas and market their words. Sometimes, this included coming up with titles: Morris West's The Shoes of the Fisherman would today be remembered (or not) under a different name had it not been for Reynolds' inspiration.
Paul Reynolds Snr (a former student of William James) got his start in the book business as the New York representative of Cassell, the British publishing firm. In time, he co-founded an agency (with Harold Ober) and established a presence in the Scribner building. His eponymous son, the author of this volume, joined the firm in 1927 – an early experience was seeing his father negotiate the sale of Mussolini's memoirs (ghosted by Il Duce's brother and the US ambassador to Italy, oddly enough) to Scribner's at a price that proved rather higher than the publisher was able to recoup. A few years later, the firm arranged a series of pieces by Winston Churchill (then in his "Wilderness Years") for Collier's, although the chance of further business here was scuppered when Reynolds’ British representative, John Farquharson, decided that a meeting with the future Prime Minister would be a good opportunity to attack his political principles. Churchill subsequently – and famously – made his way to Curtis Brown.
Reynolds gives lively accounts of not only his successes, but also of some near scrapes and failures. His association with Hemingway ended in disaster, after a scheme to sell a novel to Hollywood via a Broadway adaptation flopped. Reynolds in fact found working with Hollywood particularly uncongenial, both because "the agent never knows whether he has done a good job for his client" and because of "the character of many of the people one has to deal with." Reynolds' position also meant that he became embroiled in the problems of authors, including one who was went down with a bad case of writer's block in the middle of writing a magazine serial (the work remained half-published). A particularly strange story involved a man who was addressing women's groups in the Mid-West in the guise of Sax Rohmer; Reynolds had to write letters warning of the imposter, who was never identified.
There was also one particularly significant service to literature: dissuading Wodehouse from continuing with his ill-advised wartime broadcasts from Germany – living in the neutral USA, the Reynoldses were in a position to send an urgent telegram, which was heeded.
Some of the tricks of the trade related by Reynolds reveal the pulp side of publishing. One example was the sensationally popular novel Captain from Castille; the story was about a captain from Aragon, but the misleading title was preferred merely because it was alliterative. A more cynical ploy involved Rohmer, who happily "added an inconsequential paragraph" to a story, describing "how a nude girl donned a mink coat to go outside to her mail box." This was so that the book could have the titillating title The Nude in Mink.
Reynolds recalls many figures from the book and magazine industries. DeWitt Wallace and his Reader's Digest are honoured with a chapter-length encomium, and there's an appreciative reminiscence of his dealings with Frank Packer; Reynolds visited Australia at Packer's invitation, as part of a plan to promote Australian authors in the USA.
Paul Reynolds Snr (a former student of William James) got his start in the book business as the New York representative of Cassell, the British publishing firm. In time, he co-founded an agency (with Harold Ober) and established a presence in the Scribner building. His eponymous son, the author of this volume, joined the firm in 1927 – an early experience was seeing his father negotiate the sale of Mussolini's memoirs (ghosted by Il Duce's brother and the US ambassador to Italy, oddly enough) to Scribner's at a price that proved rather higher than the publisher was able to recoup. A few years later, the firm arranged a series of pieces by Winston Churchill (then in his "Wilderness Years") for Collier's, although the chance of further business here was scuppered when Reynolds’ British representative, John Farquharson, decided that a meeting with the future Prime Minister would be a good opportunity to attack his political principles. Churchill subsequently – and famously – made his way to Curtis Brown.
Reynolds gives lively accounts of not only his successes, but also of some near scrapes and failures. His association with Hemingway ended in disaster, after a scheme to sell a novel to Hollywood via a Broadway adaptation flopped. Reynolds in fact found working with Hollywood particularly uncongenial, both because "the agent never knows whether he has done a good job for his client" and because of "the character of many of the people one has to deal with." Reynolds' position also meant that he became embroiled in the problems of authors, including one who was went down with a bad case of writer's block in the middle of writing a magazine serial (the work remained half-published). A particularly strange story involved a man who was addressing women's groups in the Mid-West in the guise of Sax Rohmer; Reynolds had to write letters warning of the imposter, who was never identified.
There was also one particularly significant service to literature: dissuading Wodehouse from continuing with his ill-advised wartime broadcasts from Germany – living in the neutral USA, the Reynoldses were in a position to send an urgent telegram, which was heeded.
Some of the tricks of the trade related by Reynolds reveal the pulp side of publishing. One example was the sensationally popular novel Captain from Castille; the story was about a captain from Aragon, but the misleading title was preferred merely because it was alliterative. A more cynical ploy involved Rohmer, who happily "added an inconsequential paragraph" to a story, describing "how a nude girl donned a mink coat to go outside to her mail box." This was so that the book could have the titillating title The Nude in Mink.
Reynolds recalls many figures from the book and magazine industries. DeWitt Wallace and his Reader's Digest are honoured with a chapter-length encomium, and there's an appreciative reminiscence of his dealings with Frank Packer; Reynolds visited Australia at Packer's invitation, as part of a plan to promote Australian authors in the USA.
July 16, 2023
[William Morrow & Company, Inc.] (1972). HB/DJ. 1/1. 223 Pages. Obtained from Owls Books.
Plenty of engaging tales involving immense talents such as P. G. Wodehouse, Malcolm X and H. G. Wells.
Doltish boors, such as Ernest Hemingway, also feature.
The occasional reluctance to ‘name names’ guts the associated anecdotes of most (sometimes all) interest value.
Plenty of engaging tales involving immense talents such as P. G. Wodehouse, Malcolm X and H. G. Wells.
Doltish boors, such as Ernest Hemingway, also feature.
The occasional reluctance to ‘name names’ guts the associated anecdotes of most (sometimes all) interest value.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews