P.G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr. Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls. Born in Guildford, he spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College. After leaving school, he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, that played an important part in the development of the American musical. In 1934, he moved to France for tax reasons; in 1940, he was taken prisoner by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release, he made five broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, which caused controversy in Britain. Wodehouse never returned to England. He became an American citizen in 1955 and was knighted in 1975, a few weeks before his death.