[Elaine Greene, Literary Agent, sister-in-law of Graham Greene] The small archive of mainly correspondence between Literary Agent and Author-Client.

One of the top [literary] agents in LondonThe extensive correspondence, business and personal, between Elaine Greene and Elaine Greene Literary Agency, and R.P. Lister [Richard Percival Lister], travel-writer, novelist, poet, contributor to periodicals, and eventually friend. He published extensively in the USA. as well as the UK.Elaine Greene to Lister: Twenty-five (25) Typed Letters and Notes Signed (Elaine Greene becomes a cordial Elaine), total 27pp., 8vo and 4to, 14 Dec. 1962-10 April 1969. With: 4 Compliments slips on which she has written a note.Subjects: proofs; publishers; contracts, reviews; other agents; progress with publishers' readers (or not); his tenancy of Hugh Carleton Greene's and Elaine's house in Cockfield Green, Suffolk (the source of the more lengthy letters); encouragement; anxiety about their children's nanny; rejections; doubts of publishers' readers; payment; the New Yorker; Harcourt's; Swedish publisher; etc.Lister to Elaine Greene: Thirty-Five (47) copy Typed Notes and Letters (usually unsigned), total 50+pp., 4to. As with Elaine Greene, the correspondence starts off professional but soon becomes friendly, presumably because he house-sat for them (Elaine and Hugh) in Cockfield Green, and entertained them when they visited.Subjects as with Elaine (above) but more literary and added: leaving London to live in the country; reports on house minutiae; plans; pleasure in country situation; response to rejection; comments on other writers; 'literary' response to life in the country; travels; gardening; architect; submits chapters of book; his nature as a writer (to serious to be a funny writer); looking for a job; financial situation 'lamentable'; proposed trip to Turkey; foreign rights; enjoyment of time he spent with Elaine and Hugh; Punch; poems for New Yorker; etc.WITH an assortment of material further illustrative of the business of a literary agency:1. (Carbon) Lister's Types List of Sales in America from 1956-1965, with other information, 2pp.4to.2. 13 Typed Notes Signed by female members of Elaine Greene's staff, 1966-1969, usually referring to a book or other enclosure (not present).3. Memorandum of Agreement with publishers, Peter Davies Ltd for 'The Secret History of Genghis Khan'.4. Statements of Royalties (6) from Elaine Greene Ltd on various books.5. (Photostat) Royalty Statements (3) from publishers.6. Copies of the Agency's correspondence with publishers and other related (small quantity).Note: From Conor Cruise O'Brian's obituary: My friend Owen Dudley Edwards was among her clients and her friends (her other clients included Michael Frayn, P.D. James, Sybille Bedford, Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham). I heard about her death before Owen did, and told him of it. He said: She was a very great teacher. It is a remarkable tribute, from a historian and teacher of history, to a literary agent. But Elaine Greene was the kind of person who transcends categories.