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Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the A.P. Watt Records #11036, Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased through Bertram Rota, Ltd. Booksellers, London, in December 1984, September 1986, and August 1990.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• A.P. Watt (Firm)
• Authors and publishers.
• Authors, American.
• Authors, English.
• Bennett, Arnold, 1867-1931.
• Buchan, John, 1875-1940.
• Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936.
• Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965.
• Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924.
• Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
• Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928.
• Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936.
• Literary agents--England--History.
• Literature publishing--History.
• Publishers and publishing--History.
• Strindberg, August, 1849-1912.
• Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.
• Watt, A. P. (Alexander Pollock), 1834-1914.
• Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946.
• Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville), 1881-1975.
• Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939.

• A.P. Watt and Sons Records, 1861-1971 (Berg Coll MSS Watt), New York Public Library

In 1871, Alexander Pollock (A. P.) Watt (1834-1914) moved from Glasgow to London to work as a reader for Alexander Strahan's publishing company. By 1876, Watt was promoted to partner in the recently incorporated Strahan & Co., and, by 1878, he was operating as an advertising agent selling advertising space in Strahan's stable of periodicals. Through his experiences at Strahan & Co., Watt became acquainted with many of the leading authors of his day, such as Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling, all of whom later became his clients.

Around 1875, A. P. Watt began looking after the business interests of his friend, George MacDonald. Initially, Watt helped MacDonald negotiate contracts with publishing companies for free. However, Watt soon saw the commercial possibilities of representing authors in the sale or lease of copyrights. In 1881, Watt advertised himself as a literary, as well as an advertising agent.

By late 1881, A. P. Watt incorporated his business, creating A. P. Watt & Co., the world's first literary agency. Without existing guidelines, Watt had to determine the manner of operation and the amount he should be paid for his services. Watt settled on the commission system he had employed as an advertising agent. By charging a ten percent fee on the monies that his clients earned, Watt established the basic rate that is still used today. For more than thirty years, Watt dominated the field as he continued to define the role of the literary agent. Shortly before A. P. Watt's death in 1914, he wrote:

The work of the Literary Agency is to conduct all business arrangements of every kind for authors and playwrights; that is to say, to place Manuscripts to the best advantage; to watch for openings; to sell copyrights either absolutely or for a limited period; to collect royalties, and to receive other moneys due; to transfer property; to value literary property; to obtain opinions on Manuscripts, etc., etc.

After the elder Watt's death, his son, A. S. Watt, took over the literary agency. A. S. Watt then passed the company on to his three sons: Hansard, William, and Peter. A. P. Watt's son and grandsons continued to attract important and/or best-selling authors to the agency, among them Pearl Buck, G. K. Chesterton, Robert Graves, W. Somerset Maugham, Rafael Sabatini, Alan Sillitoe, Nevil Shute, Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, P. G. Wodehouse, and William Butler Yeats.

In 1965, Peter Watt died and A. P. Watt & Sons ceased to be a family-run business. It did, however, continue to operate in London. In a 1975 article celebrating A. P. Watt & Sons's centenary, Hilary Rubinstein, the firm's head, observed:

For many writers these days, the agent is one fixed point on the compass. Whether A. P. Watt & Son itself will survive to celebrate its bicentenary in 2075, it seems probable that the service which A. P. Watt began to render to authors a hundred years ago will be increasingly in demand in the years ahead.

Adapted from information in: Gillies, Mary Ann, "A. P. Watt, Literary Agent," Publishing Research Quarterly, vol. 9 (Spring 1993), pp. 20-33. Rubinstein, Hilary, "A. P. Watt: the First Hundred Years," The Bookseller (May 3, 1975), pp. 2354-2358.

The material in this collection documents sales of authors' works to publishing companies, newspapers, magazines, broadcasting corporations, and film studios. It also contains information regarding royalty payments received from those sales.

Throughout the period covered by the file material and into more recent history, the Watt agency was in the forefront of the market in popular fiction. The collection as a whole contains a wealth of bibliographical information and provides a full picture of the changing trends in the publishing industry.

The private account files (Series 1) include correspondence, agreements between authors and publishers, Library of Congress registration receipts, copyright renewal forms, and other items. The great majority of these items date from 1897-1937, but several files extend as far as 1985.

Notable authors include: E. Maria Albanesi, W. L. Alden, Philip Atkey, L. J. Beeston, Arnold Bennett, Walter Besant, M. E. Braddon, Robert Bridges, Lewis Carroll, G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Conrad, S. R. Crockett, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, T. S. Eliot, Gerard Fairlie, Jeffery Farnol, Gilbert Frankau, Pamela Frankau, Tom Gallon, William Gladstone, Francis Grainger, Harley Granville-Barker, James O. Hannay, Thomas Hardy, Beatrice Harraden, Ian Hay, Robert S. Hichens, Henry James, Jerome K. Jerome, Rudyard Kipling, Richmal C. Lamburn, Amy Le Feuvre, William Le Queux, D. H. Lawrence, Jack London, George Macdonald, Denis Mackail, A. E. W. Mason, W. Somerset Maugham, Herman C. McNeile, Leonard Merrick, Leslie Montgomery, F. Frankfort Moore, Ralph Mottram, Henry Newbolt, Alfred Noyes, Margaret Oliphant, Oliver Onions, Baroness Orczy, Max Pemberton, Austin Philips, Ezra Pound, A. T. Quiller-Couch, Morley Roberts, Raphael Sabatini, Olive Schreiner, May Sinclair, Robert Louis Stevenson, August Strindberg, William M. Thackeray, William Townend, Horace A. Vachell, Edgar Wallace, Hugh Walpole, H. G. Wells, Fred White, Oscar Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, and W. B. Yeats

Also interspersed throughout the private account files are letters from major British and American magazines and publishing houses.

Authors for whom there is extensive coverage in the volumes (Series 2-4) include, in addition to those mentioned in the preceding historical note and under Series 1 above, Rolf Boldrewood, John Buchan, Robert Graves, Constance Garnett, H. Rider Haggard, Bret Harte, Anthony Hope, Ian MacLaren, Alfred Noyes, and Mark Twain. The volumes span the years 1926-1965; coverage is strongest from 1947 to 1962.