Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) was an English humorist who wrote novels, short stories, plays, lyrics, and essays, all with the same light touch of gentle satire. He is best known as the creator of the irredeemably dim and unflaggingly affable Bertie Wooster and his invincible valet Jeeves, but Wodehouse also produced multi-volume story cycles on Blandings Castle, Mr. Mulliner's extended family, Mike and Psmith, the Oldest Member, Uncle Fred, and the Drones Club. (All this is in addition to his many stand-alone novels, short stories, and plays.)

Throughout his stories, Wodehouse presents a view of the world which differs from -- his fans would say, improves upon -- the focus most people have. For a variety of reasons, pigs, newts, and statues of the Infant Samuel at Prayer play significant roles in the Wodehousian view, while such things as death, taxes, and work are crowded towards the O. P. wings.

Pelham ("Plum") Grenville Wodehouse (pronounced "Woodhouse") was the greatest writer in English of this century--but sadly overlooked by most `serious' critics because he wrote comedy and lyrics for musicals. As a lyricist, Wodehouse was the father of the modern musical. In the early part of this century Kern, Bolton and Wodehouse wrote a number of musicals for a tiny New York theatre, the Princess--and transformed the American muscial forever. Before, the musical comedy had "exotic" locales and simple music and was based on the operetta of the 19th century. Bolton, Kern and Wodehouse made it a play with music, set in contemporaneous society and featuring ordinary people. Furthermore the lyrics of the song were an integral part of the plot. The pinnacle of this sort of music is surely Bill, written in 1917 and used by Kern in Showboat--a haunting song about a man so ordinary that the girl can't explain why she loves (Just My) Bill. And as a wordsmith he has no equal. He could, as Evelyn Waugh put it, "produce on average three uniquely brilliant and original similes to every page". His stories were not written to be "important" or to appeal to critics; they were straightforward humour. He was a punctilious and diligent writer whose only aim was to make as many people as possible laugh.

Today, Wodehouse is not as famous as he should be--at least among the lay public. If you ask authors though, he still consistently places near the top of lists of influences.