Socialist to Carbonato: George Bernard
Shaw's Dealings with Paul Reynolds

ROBERT A. COLBY
 

Di
 

uring the 1890s, a pivotal decade in the marketing of
I books, the literary agent emerged as intermediary

between authors and publishers. The foremost of Ameri¬
ca's first literary agents was Paul Revere Reynolds. Among the Rey¬
nolds Papers in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library is found this
exchange:

APRIL 15, 1914
SOCIALIST LONDON

EVERYBODYS OFFER $8000 FOR THREE PLAYS
AMERICAN SERIAL CABLE

APRIL 18, 1914
CARBONATO NEW YORK
ACCEPT SHAW
 

Socialist and Carbonato were the code names respectively of
George Bernard Shaw and of Reynolds's agency. Translated from
the cable-ese, these messages signal that Reynolds had just con¬
cluded a deal for the American serial rights for publication of
Androcles and the Lion, The Great Catherine, and Pygmalion in Every¬
body's Magazine. Shaw's name had been known by theatregoers in
New York as far back as 1894—Arms and the Man was the first of

Opposite: George Bernard Shaw in 1914 at the time Pygmalion was
published in America.