A. D. Peters

Who was A. D. Peters?

Augustus Dudley Peters was a British literary agent. Born in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, the fourth of the seven children of a farmer, he was informally adopted at the age of 3 by an aunt who lived in England and was educated at Haberdashers Aske's school in Hampstead and St. John's College Cambridge. After working as a magazine editor and drama critic he started a literary agency in 1924 and subsequently represented many leading writers including Hilaire Belloc, J.B. Priestley, Evelyn Waugh Arthur Koestler, Kingsley Amis, Rebecca West. From 1959 onwards the agency became a partnership and was gradually enlarged. He retired in 1972, and died a few months later.

After Peters' death the agency merged with Fraser and Dunlop Agency to produce Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, which in 1999 became PFD, with offices in London and New York. After a time under the ownership of CSS Stellar plc, it was bought in June 2008 by a consortium led by Andrew Neil, but not before most leading agents had walked out to form United Agents.