WODEHOUSE, P.G. Annotated typescript draft of Service with a Smile.

‘Off to the Races Without Further Comment’

WODEHOUSE, P.G. Annotated typescript draft of Service with a Smile. [Remsenburg. May–December 1960].

[with:]

SCHWED, Peter. Carbon copies of two letters addressed to P.G. Wodehouse in Remsenburg, with a part-printed Simon and Schuster editorial department report. New York. February 1961.

Wodehouse: 4to. Twentieth-century black morocco, raised bands, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers; carbon typescript (280 x 220 mm, save for 6 ff. measuring 200 x 125 mm) pasted to rectos of semi-transparent archival paper mounted on card stubs, ff. 63 (of which ff. 51 in manuscript); [1 (title)], ‘230’ (i.e. 249); bound without f. 164 (with old pencilled note ‘no folio 164’ to f. 63v; a few extra leaves pasted to versos (predominantly earlier drafts of the respective text to rectos), ff. 36 and 38 misbound; corrections, revisions, deletions, and annotations in pencil and ink throughout.

Schwed: Folio; housed in a modern card folder; 3 ff., text to rectos only; Simon and Schuster report printed on yellow paper with a few thumb-marks; otherwise very well preserved.

Complete typescript of the eighth Blandings novel, with extensive manuscript emendations throughout, preceded by over sixty pages of Wodehouse’s pencilled working notes and accompanied by letters and an editorial report from the author’s editor at Simon & Schuster, Peter Schwed.

Service with a Smile, the eighth full-length novel set at Blandings Castle, was published in the United States by Simon & Schuster on 15 October 1961, the British edition following from Herbert Jenkins on 17 August 1962. A condensed version had earlier appeared in two parts in the Toronto Star Weekly, on 26 August and 2 September 1961.

Bound in preceding the typescript, Wodehouse’s preliminary notes (fifty-one pages in manuscript and twelve pages of typescript with manuscript corrections) are arranged in hand-ruled compartments. They document the author’s developing and abandoned ideas for characters, scenes, and plotlines and, along with the extensive revisions to the typescript itself, offer an unusually detailed record of the novel’s composition, from earliest conception to final stages.

Particularly striking are Wodehouse’s early plans to turn the novel into an unprecedented Blandings/Jeeves and Wooster crossover work: the first entry, dated 27 May 1960, begins ‘Try it as a Jeeves story’. The idea came to a swift climax the following day, a proposed title, ‘VERY FOXY, JEEVES’, boldly announced in its own compartment, followed in the next by Wodehouse’s realisation that ‘The story isn’t right. It ought to be about American girl [Myra Schoonmaker] getting Bertie to do something connected with her love story’. From the next note, dated 30 May, onwards, there appear to be no further references to Bertie or Jeeves.

In addition to the typescript and notes are carbon copies of two typed letters addressed to Wodehouse (‘Dear Plum’) from Peter Schwed, his editor at Simon & Schuster (Schwed’s name is given in only one, but the letters are clearly part of a running correspondence). The letters, respectively dated 6 and 14 February 1961, concern preparations for the novel’s publication and include much fulsome praise: ‘I loved every word of SERVICE WITH A SMILE including its title. It strikes me as one of your very best, Plum. […] Heartiest congratulations on still another brilliant and beautiful job. I’ve absolutely no critical comments or suggestions to make about this one’ (6 February); ‘The book is absolutely top-drawer Wodehouse’ (14 February).

Also included is an original Simon & Schuster Editorial Department Report by Schwed, submitted by Wodehouse’s literary agent, Scott Meredith, who counted amongst his clients J.G. Ballard, Norman Mailer, and Philip K. Dick. Wodehouse was the first client of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, co-founded by Scott and his brother, Sidney Meredith.

In a pithy three-point assessment, initialled and dated 6 February 1961, Schwed notes:

‘Nothing need be said about this, the new Wodehouse, except:

1. It is an “Uncle Fred” novel -- he being the famous character immortalized in one of the best-known of classic Wodehouse stories, “Uncle Fred Flits By”.

2. As usual, it’s completely ready to go to press, and this time we don’t even have to tinker with a new title suggestion: the present one seems fine to me.

3. It’s one of the very best Wodehouse novels I’ve ever read.

So off to the races without further comment. Add to the Fall 19k list.’

Provenance: Sotheby’s, Fine Books and Manuscripts Including Americana. Property of the Estate of James H. Heineman (26 June 1998), lot 117 (not sold).

SKU: 2126345