ABOUT CURTIS BROWN, LTD.

Curtis Brown, Ltd. is one of the world’s leading literary agencies, representing a wide variety of established and emerging authors of all genres since 1914. With fourteen agents in our New York, San Francisco and New Orleans offices, and a staff dedicated to handling dramatic, translation, audio and digital media rights, we provide the highest standard of literary representation in all aspects of our clients’ careers.

BRIEF HISTORY

Albert Curtis Brown was born in 1866 in upstate New York. He moved to England in 1888 to head the International Publishing Bureau and started his own literary agency in London in 1905. As war clouds gathered in Europe, Brown escorted two members of the London staff to New York City and established the U.S. branch of Curtis Brown Ltd. in July of 1914. The day after Brown’s return to England, World War I began. The New York office was initially established to market US rights in works by Curtis Brown’s British clients, including D.H. Lawrence, C.S. Lewis, Daphne du Maurier, A.A. Milne and Winston Churchill. The agency also had a mandate to cultivate American authors, which it did in short order, adding key figures to its venerable list, including W.H. Auden, Theodore Dreiser, Ayn Rand and Ogden Nash. Separate offices of Curtis Brown exist in New York, London, Toronto and Sydney, each operating as an independent company. The New York branch of Curtis Brown, Ltd. was one of the founders, in 1928, of the Society of Authors’ Representatives (SAR), and was instrumental in negotiating the SAR’s merger with the Independent Literary Agents Association (founded in 1977) to form the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR) in 1991. In 2020, the name was updated to the Association of American Literary Agents. All of our agents are members of the AALA and are bound by the AALA’s Canon of Ethics. We remain committed to the responsible and ethical representation that makes us an industry leader.

Extras

• Canon of Ethics of the Association of American Literary Agents

• On the occasion of Curtis Brown, Ltd.’s 100th anniversary

• On the occasion of Curtis Brown, Ltd.’s 70th anniversary

• Sample of the Curtis Brown ledger books, 1932

Inclusion and Accountability

Diversity and inclusion are core values for Curtis Brown, Ltd. It is critical that we incorporate these values into all aspects of our work and our workplace environment, including advocacy, communications, hiring, retention, and promotion. To carry out our core values, our agency’s Inclusion & Accountability Committee works to foster a shared culture that promotes the goals of accepting, respecting and valuing differences that include age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, sexual identity, ability, language, family circumstances and cultural backgrounds. Recognizing the particular impact of racism on Curtis Brown’s clients, staff, and our community at large, the Committee devotes special attention to issues of racial justice.