Hartford Ronald Hobbs was the preeminent African American literary agent of the 1960s and 1970s, negotiating over 300 fiction and non-fiction books (including several by Larry Neal, H. Rap Brown, Paul Carter Harrison, James Haskins, and Julius Lester). In 1967, Hobbs became the literary agent to poet, novelist, playwright and Black Arts Movement founder LeRoi Jones who, in 1968, would adopt the Muslim name Imamu Amiri Baraka after aligning himself with Robert Karenga and the politics of Black Cultural Nationalism. In this period, Hobbs became one of his closest associates, serving as both an agent and advisor on several of Baraka's landmark books in this period, many of which are now considered classics of contemporary African American literature: Black Magic: Poetry 1961 - 67 (1967), Raise, Race, Rays, Raze: Essays Since 1965 (1968), Four Black Revolutionary Plays (1969) and the defining work of the Black Arts Movement, Black Fire: An Anthology (1968), edited by Baraka and Larry Neal. Hobbs would also help negotiate two film deals for Baraka (including the rarely seen "The New Ark" scripted and directed by Baraka in 1968 for Public Broadcasting Library), oversee the publication of numerous articles (Evergreen Review, Negro Digest and Esquire), field interview requests (Playboy, Time) and book speaking engagements. Hobbs also helped Baraka establish his own imprint, Jihad Publications, overseeing the independent publication and distribution of a variety of Black Nationalist-inspired books, records and films. In the early 1970s Hobbs moved away from literary representation and towards film production. He executed 10 major motion picture sales in the 1970s, represented Ernest Tidyman on The French Connection (1971), and helped create and market the motion picture Shaft (1971) starring Richard Roundtree, as well as Lord Shango (1975).