P.g. Wodehouse Biography and latest books by P.g. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English writer born on 15 October, 1881. He is considered as one of the funniest writer of all times. His work of writing includes novels, musical theatre and collection of short stories. With a span of seventy years in his writing career, his books are amongst the widely searched and read till today. He is best known for his works in Jeeves and Balding castle. He also has 15 plays and about 250 lyrics to his credits.

He was born to Eleanor Wodehouse and Henry Ernest Wodehouse, in Guildford, Surrey, (England), as a premature child. His father Henry Ernest Wodehouse worked as a British judge in Hong Kong. As a child he stayed in many boarding schools because of which he saw his parents for hardly six months from the age of three till he was 15. As a result of this he became very close to his brother who also shared the same interest in art. Most of his time was spent in writing while he was in boarding schools.

Wodehouse wrote his first story at the very young age of seven. However his father Henry Wodehouse was not amused by at his son’s interest in writing and he strongly disapprove of it. As a result P.G. Wodehouse worked in the London branch of Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank for two years after his graduation.

His entry in the literary world started when he began working as a free-lance writer, writing humorous stories for the London Globe, and Punch where he had a column called ‘By The Way’.
After the year 1909, he lived and worked in France and United States. In the year 1914, Wodehouse got married to Ethel Newton whom he had met in New York eight weeks before their marriage. His wife was a widow and she had a daughter called Leonora from her first marriage. He legally adopted her and even dedicated his book The Heart of A Goof for Leonora, which was published in the year 1926.

Wodehouse viewed the film industry in Hollywood very ironically even though he had written musical comedies for Hollywood. In the year 1917, Wodehouse published his book The Man with Two Feet. In this book he introduced the character Jeeves, which soon became one of the most popular characters to appear in his other books. In the year 1918, his book Piccadilly Jim was published, which went on to become a huge success. However his breakthrough came when his book The Inimitable Jeeves was published in the year 1924. He then penned ‘Thank You, Jeeves’ in the year 1934.

Pelham Wodehouse also wrote many Broadway musicals in collaboration with Guy Bolton. Some of the works that they did together were: Sally, Sitting Pretty, Anything Goes, and Bring on The Girls. One of Wodehouse’s greatest lyrics was ‘Bill’, which was a hit in the musical show Boat.

In the year 1975, on February 14, Wodehouse passed away, at Resemburg, Long Island. He was knighted few weeks after his death. During his writing career (which was for more than 70 years), he had written more than 100 novels, about 20 screenplays and 30 plays.

Submitted by Precious Pheirim.