P.G. WODEHOUSE
Sir
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, "Plum" (which is what his first name
sounds like when spoken quickly!) to his friends, is one of the outstanding
comic novelists of all time. He is best remembered for his creation, the
inimitable Jeeves, stately 'butler extraordinaire', unflappable, erudite and
peerless "gentleman's personal gentleman"! It will be unfair to omit a
mention of his master, the irredeemably dim and unflaggingly affable Bertie
Wooster ("It is generally believed that he fell on his head when he was
born"!)
Wodehouse (pronounced "woodhouse") depicted a peculiar fondness for butlers, especially English butlers ("tall, decorous and dignified"). Indeed, no Wodehouse novel can be complete without a butler bringing in a salver with a brimming glass on top of it containing some elixir of life, mostly despised by his masters, since the liquid would either be yoghurt or milk, understandably looked down upon as poison, as more heavenly beverages a la a cocktail or a stiff whiskey (or, one of those Jeeve's specials!) would have been more agreeable to the tormented souls !
He was born in Surrey, England in 1881 (15th of October) and educated at Dulwich College, where he met gentry-folk who would serve as the main characters of many of his future books. Also he practised boxing there. For over 70 years Wodehouse was to entertain readers with his comic novels and stories set in an England that is forever Edwardian and featuring idiotic youths, feckless debutantes, redoubtable aunts, and stuffy businessmen.
At 21, (1902), he started in the ‘By the Way’ column in the old Globe. Also he kept on sending his freelance stories and contributed a series of school stories to a magazine for boys, the Captain, (in one of which Psmith made his first appearance).
At the age of 28, not a long time before First World War, (1909), he went to America, (that was his second visit; his first had been in 1904) where he continued to write short stories and also critical reports for papers as theatrical critic. He made a serial for the Saturday Evening Post, (and for the next twenty-five years almost all his books make its first appearance in this magazine). At that time Wodehouse met people close to musicals circles, and wrote lyrics and took part in the creation of musical shows. At the same time he did not abandon writing and wrote Psmith, Journalist (1912), Piccadilly Jim (1918).
During the next few years Plum travelled with his shows and chose as his country of residence — France. (He lived alternately in the UK and the USA until 1934, when he started living in France.) 1930-1935 he lived near Cannes.
In 1939 for services to the English language he received a doctor’s degree from Oxford University.
In the beginning of World War Two he was pursued by the French government during ‘spy hunts’ and when Nazi troops occupied France he was captured and interned in Germany. This was a grey area of his life which haunted him for many years - not that he lost sleep over it anyway!
After the war Plum continued to write books and took part not only in creating lyrics for musical comedies but tried his hand as a producer, (with differing degrees of luck).
In 1955 at the age of 74 he took American citizenship and lived afterwards near New York. In 1975 he was knighted by the Queen of Great Britain, and died shortly afterwards - February 14, on St. Valentine day, 1975, Southampton, N.Y.