In 2001, the Addendum to the McIlvaine Bibliography added the new Section AA, devoted to paperback editions of Wodehouse works.
There are innumerable paperback publications. The Collection’s scope is limited to the earliest Penguin paperback editions and Ionicus-illustrated editions of Wodehouse titles. In the early years of paperbacks, Penguin was the most prolific publisher of Wodehouse and the cover styles and illustrations are iconic.
It is worth noting that in 1939, Penguin USA was established by Ian and Betty Ballantine by importing British editions of Penguin paperbacks, starting with The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells and My Man Jeeves by P.G.Wodehouse.
Because of the importance of Penguin to the Wodehouse canon, the Addendum has treated Penguin paperbacks more comprehensively than paperbacks by other publishers, though no separate listing was given for titles published only by Penguin USA.
The Wodehouse Penguin items sought for Section AA of the Collection are:
- The earliest orange and white striped Penguin covers with no illustrations
- All titles in the three types of Salter-illustrated covers
- All Ionicus illustrated covers
- The specified television tie-in pictorial covers
- The earliest Penguin publication of titles with covers not of/by the above types or illustrators, if their copyright dates precede either the Salter or Ionicus-illustrated books of that same title
The items in this database were originally listed and assigned McIlvaine numbers in Sections A (Novels and Semi-autobiographical) B (Omnibus) and H (About Wodehouse) in order of publication date.
With publication of the new Section AA, a new system of numbers for that Section was assigned. Using AAan31 as an example, “AA” signifies a paperback publication of a title in Section A (Novels and Semi-autobiographical Works.) The letters “an” signify Penguin was the publisher, and the “31” that follows is the number associated with the source novel, Leave it to Psmith.
In this Section, AAan31 refers to that title. The database lists publication of four different cover types for that that title---A B F and N.
The Condition column of the database for Section AA indicates which titles have been donated thus far, and which of those were first Penguin publications.
While many later Penguins editions of these titles exist, the Collection seeks the earliest editions of titles and cover types as listed in this database. Some of the items initially donated are not the earliest Penguin publication of that title, or in the best condition.
We welcome donations that will upgrade an existing title to a first Penguin publication or a better condition, or will add an item that has not been donated as yet.
Additional Notes
Only one item collected in Section AA has a dust wrapper. If you know of additional early Penguins that were issued with dust wrappers, we are interested in information about, or donations of same.
The title Summer Moonshine is listed in the McIlvaine Addendum Section AA as having been published with a Type D (no orange stripe) Geoffrey Salter-illustrated cover. We are unable to confirm that such an edition was published and would be interested in information about this edition.
Of special note is a Penguin item in Section U: Ephemera and Collectibles: The Crime Wave at Blandings, First Edition of the short story in the Penguin Mini Modern Classics format, 11 x 16 cm., paperback. It was published in 2011 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Modern Classics, when Penguin published fifty “Mini Modern Classics of the very best short fiction by writers” which included this short story by P. G. Wodehouse.
Also of interest in Section AA are two box sets of Ionicus-illustrated paperbacks: The Immortal World of Wodehouse and Life at Blandings, each containing five separately published novels. The latter box set should not be confused with the Omnibus volume of the same name, which includes Something Fresh, Summer Lightning, and Heavy Weather.