It is unusual for a literary agent to represent poets. Starting in the early 1970s, having recently arrived from New Zealand with a background as a bookseller and publisher, I was embarking on a crash course in Australian letters. Having taken over as Managing Director of the fledgling literary agency Curtis Brown Australia in 1971, with a handful of distinguished clients like White, Horne, Keneally, Lindsay, Dark, I found a willing teacher/mentor in Douglas Stewart, a fellow New Zealander and at that time editor and poetry publisher at Angus and Robertson. I became Doug's agent and through him A.D (Alec) Hope's.' (Publication abstract)