The Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1918

 

 

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

(An Autobiography)
 

BORN October 15, 1881, at Guildford, England. Third son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse, C. M. G. Originally intended for the Navy, but was barred by defective eyesight. Educated at Dulwich College. Joined staff of London Globe as an occasional writer of humorous column, By the Way, in 1902. Became editor of By the Way in 1904.

In the spring of 1904 visited America for the first time with the object of giving the St. Louis Exposition the rapid North-to-South; but, finding New York rather what the doctor ordered, remained in that thriving little city for three weeks, then returned to England in order not to lose job on Globe—which, though producing only a modest twenty-five iron men per week, was a considerable factor in providing those regular meals which the artist soul demands if it is to give the public of its best. In spite of this sojourn in the New World, our young hero did not even attempt a book of impressions of America—neither the facetious kind, where you devote a chapter to telling how you couldn’t get your shoes shined by leaving them outside the bedroom door, nor the serious variety, where you wag your head solemnly and say “What is the future of this great country?”

This showed that there was good stuff in the lad.

It was on this trip that I—that we—that Mr. Wodehouse—that the subject of this biography (copies of which, for purposes of presentation as Christmas, birthday or wedding gifts, may be obtained for five cents a throw at this office) first read George Ade’s Fables in Slang and E. W. Townsend’s Chimmie Fadden—works which exercised a profound effect on his growing mind, opening out new vistas and all that sort of thing.

In 1906–7 came a period of lyric-writing for musical comedy, to the melodies of Jerome D. Kern, then a mere infant. This included a permanent post on the staff of the Gaiety Theater, London. At least it was permanent for three months, and then the board of directors decided at a special session that the ten dollars a week which they were paying our hero could be more profitably expended on cigars.

In 1909 we revisited America, where we have remained on and off ever since, having a perfectly splendid time. We have met Irvin Cobb, and contributed to The Saturday Evening Post, and married, and gone to Coney Island, and bought a dog, and had lunch in the Curtis Building, and everything. Our life has been one whirl of pleasure.

In 1916 the musical comedy virus, long dormant in the system, broke out with great severity, and we are not yet out of danger. We have been collaborating with Guy Bolton, the modern Aristophanes. We are in good health at present, but who can say when the old bean may crack under the strain?

 

 

Note:
The Who’s Who—and Why page was an occasional feature of the Saturday Evening Post, appearing at least four times in the quarterly volume for April–June 1918.
Others profiled in this issue include Russian-born actress Alla Nazimova, Scottish-born war and travel author Hector MacQuarrie, and (also as an autobiographical sketch) Australian-born novelist Ida A. R. Wylie.