James Brand Pinker (1863 – February 8, 1922) was a literary agent who represented

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...

H.G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, D.H. Lawrence and many of the other leading British and American writers of the age. He is considered to be one of the first literary agents in the modern sense and to have placed relations between authors and publishers on a more professional and fair basis.

engaged Pinker as his agent in August 1899. His novella ''Typhoon'', which was published in

The Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ...

was the first piece of writing by Conrad to be handled by Pinker. Conrad's engagement of an agent to represent him was seen as violating a gentlemanly code of conduct by

William Blackwood William Blackwood (20 November 177616 September 1834) was a Scottish publisher who founded the firm of William Blackwood and Sons. Life Blackwood was born in Edinburgh on 20 November 1776. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of boo ...

, publisher of ''

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by publisher William Blackwood and originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine'', but quickly relaunched as ''Blackwood's Edinbu ...

'', the periodical in which several of Conrad's important early works, including ''

Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgium, Belgian company in the African interior. Th ...

'', had been published. Following J. B. Pinker's death, his sons Eric Seabrooke Pinker (1891–1973) and James Randolph "Ralph" Pinker (1900–1959) took over the literary agency, which they ran with considerably less success than their father; the business failed in 1944. Both Eric and Ralph eventually faced imprisonment for differing charges related to diverting authors' royalties into their own pockets; Eric in New York and Ralph in London). Eric married twice; first to Margit Vibege Watney ''née'' Dietrichson, a Norwegian widow. Upon her death in 1927, he married the actress Adrienne Morrison, mother of the Bennett sisters ( Barbara,

Constance Constance may refer to: Places * Constance, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Constance, Minnesota, United States, an unincorporated community * Mount Constance, Washington State, United States * Lake Constance (disambiguat ...

, and Joan). Morrison too predeceased him; she died in 1940. He did not remarry. Eric's stepson John Basil Watney's (biographer of the Churchills) second wife was theatre scene designer Antoinette Rose Pratt Barlow (1917–1981).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinker, James 1863 births 1922 deaths British literary agents People from London