ABSTRACT
By the early 1950s, American publishers and authors who hoped to publish their works in Europe had understood the necessity of enlisting the services of US agents; most often these agents worked through a continental British representative, who before the war had most prominently been chosen among the list of A. M. Heath, Curtis Brown (London), A. D. Peters, and John Farquharson. Internationalization of US publishing increased, with American publishers opening foreign branches and book agencies multiplying around the globe. Conjointly, American cultural diplomats were beginning to envisage what wonderful ambassadors books might actually be in the process of peacekeeping. This chapter presents a case that illustrates both of Costain's—and indeed, his American agent's—awareness of the marketability of his books, and of their relative ignorance of the terms conceded outside the United States. Clearly, as early as the post-war years, US agents were intent on playing the new foreign markets, readily orchestrating competition among rival authors.
