30 APRIL 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.ukI
n 1945, playwright Bernard Shaw sent a postcard to
the Society of Authors.
‘The time has come (I am nearly ninety),’ it read,
‘when I must hand over the management of my
literary and theatre to some permanent agency... You
intimated some time ago that [the Society of Authors] is
game for the job. On what terms?’
A deal was done and, after his papers had been passed to
us, we received another postcard from Shaw’s Corner: ‘Act as
if I were dead, as I soon shall be.’
Bernard Shaw’s is one of over forty literary estates
we represent today. Its impact over the years has been
considerable. In fact in 1967 it enabled us to purchase one of
the two buildings in South Kensington which served as our
offices until 2019.
The estate of Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the
first. Many of the estates we represent are for authors who
had close associations with the Society of Authors during
their lifetimes: Walter de la Mare, Rosamond Lehmann and
John Masefield served on our management committee, and
Masefield, former Poet Laureate, was also the union’s President
for thirty years (a role held today by Philip Pullman). Philip
Larkin was a member and, never having an agent, relied
extensively on our services.
What began in 1912 as a service to writers nearing the end
of their working lives today makes up a significant proportion
of our annual income – supporting our day-to-day activities,
maintaining relationships with industry, and enabling us to
promote good practice. The income also helps us to support
individual writers through grants and endowments awarded by
two of our charities, the Authors’ Contingency Fund and PD
James Memorial Fund.How do literary estates work?
For most estates we take on the role of agent. This means we handle
a range of rights including stage, film and publication, and take
a commission on income. For others, we are a beneficiary of the
authors’ copyrights or literary income. Both setups are made possible
by copyright law.
UK copyright law protects your work for seventy years after your
death, giving literary estates great potential to continue to generateincome for beneficiaries. As agents we are mindful of an author’s
reputation and an estate’s wishes, but it is our responsibility to take
advantage of new licensing opportunities – and to embrace the
occasionally weird and often wonderful requests that come our way.
This might take the form of allowing a new stage adaptation of
a much-loved children’s classic (as we did for Masefield’s The Box of
Delights), or taking advantage of the strong interest in classic English
literature by licensing titles like The Go-Between (LP Hartley) and
Maurice (EM Forster) in markets that have previously been challenging.Sarah Baxter, who handles literary estates
at the Society of Authors, explains the work
they do to keep an author’s work alive for
years after their deathLiterary legacy
Find out what the SoA could do for
you at http://www.societyofauthors.org
get 15 months and
for the price of 12 with
the code WRITINGMAGus, we received another postcard from Shaw’s Corner: ‘Act asconsiderable. In fact in 1967 it enabled us to purchase one oftheir lifetimes: Walter de la Mare, Rosamond Lehmann andMasefield, former Poet Laureate, was also the union’s President
for thirty years (a role held today by Philip Pullman). PhilipWhat began in 1912 as a service to writers nearing the end
of their working lives today makes up a significant proportion
of our annual income – supporting our day-to-day activities,promote good practice. The income also helps us to support
individual writers through grants and endowments awarded by
two of our charities, the Authors’ Contingency Fund and PD