P.G. Wodehouse

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) was born in Guildford, a large town in Surrey, England. Upon graduating Dulwich College, he briefly supported himself working at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank but soon left to become a full-time journalist and author, primarily of lighthearted comedies. Wodehouse was a prolific writer, penning nearly a hundred novels and more than thirty stage plays in addition to light verse and screenplays. His best-known characters remain the affable but dim-witted aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his highly intelligent (and rather Machiavellian) valet Jeeves; other popular characters include the eccentric Psmith and the absent-minded, pig-loving Lord Emsworth and the rest of the crew of Blandings Castle. Wodehouse married Ethel Wayman in 1914 and had no children, although he was close to his stepdaughter.

In 1934, Wodehouse and Ethel moved to Le Touquet in France; the area was overtaken by the German army in 1940, and the Wodehouses were sent to an internment camp. Wodehouse was eventually asked to give a series of five radio talks broadcast to America about life as an internee, which he did; the scripts were written in Wodehouse’s usual blithe comedic style, and they were poorly received as German propaganda, with some branding Wodehouse as a traitor and many others boycotting his books. After being released from his internment, Wodehouse moved to America, taking on dual citizenship in 1955. The furor eventually died down as it was determined that Wodehouse had been guilty more of naiveté than any sinister motives, but Wodehouse lived in America for the rest of his life. He was knighted in 1975, just a few weeks before his death of a heart attack at the age of 93.