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Do you know who wrote the lyrics for the composer Jerome Kkern’s
musical comedy Leave it to Jane (1917) and George Gershwin’s
Rosalie (1928)? It was the famous creator of the famous
characters Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, the “gentleman’s gentleman”.
Comic novelist, short-story writer, lyricist, and playwright, P. G.
Wodehouse or Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was born in Guildford,
Surrey, on October 15, 1881. He had his education at Dulwich College
in London.
After completing his literary education, Wodehouse stepped out to
broaden his horizon and earn his living by taking a job in a bank.
The job soon tired him and he wanted to branch off into the career
of writing. His first job was that of a humor columnist in the
London Globe in 1902. He also dabbled a lot in free lance
writing for other publications. |
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Eight years later, Wodehouse began to spend
long periods in America and France. During the Second World War, he
was captured by the Nazis while in France. The Nazis, who captured
him in the year 1940, dubbed him an enemy alien. They kept him in
their custody in Berlin, where Wodehouse spent most of the war days.
However, his sense of humor never left him.
During his days in Berlin, Wodehouse made a
few controversial radio broadcasts. In his broadcasts, he made
humorous sketches of his days in a German prison, subtly ridiculing
the Germans. His action, however, offended the sentiments of those
back home in England, for they viewed his using an enemy medium to
communicate as an act of treachery. They called him a traitor,
although they did not accuse him formally. Thereafter, Wodehouse did
not return to England. He migrated to New York and made America his
home in 1947. He was granted citizenship in 1956.
The early writings of Wodehouse were mainly
short stories and light romances. Around the year 1913, he began
writing farce, which soon became his forte. His command of the
English language was like that of a scholar’s. Jeeves’ pearls of wit
and wisdom are immense proof of this.
Most of his writings were set in the late
Edwardian era. England of the 1930s was the backdrop for most of his
novels. Exaggerated characterization was his trademark. He made good
use of far-fetched imagery. He relished drawing funny characters
such as silly young men, empty headed women, domineering dowagers
and self-filled businessman. Aristocrats were his favorites. The
dim-witted aristocrat bachelor Bertram Wooster and his valet Jeeves
were two of his famous creations. A specialty is that Wooster and
Jeeves appeared together in a story in The Man with Two Left Feet
(1917) and were still together in Much Obliged, Jeeves that
appeared in 1971, their ages unadvanced. In almost all his novels,
romance was the fine thread. The plots were very complex, clever and
very carefully planned. He delighted in giving unexpected twists to
the plots.
Wodehouse has penned more than a hundred
novels and short stories. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in
the year 1975. He died on February 15, 1975, at Southampton in New
York. |
