From Father Richard "Stinker Pinker" Libby comes the splendid news that a new chapter has been formed: "The Mottled Oyster Club of San Antonio has decided on a name and on a president (your humble curate, in fact)." Details about this "small but jocular band" to follow in a future "Chapters corner" column (about which see the Cornering Chapters article in this issue).
Rhinehart Potts spotted a Wodehouse reference in the March 22, 1999 issue of Forbes. An article reporting a currency crisis remarks that "the IMF admitted in a January report . . . that mistakes were made. P. G. Wodehouse's character Ukridge comes closer to my own assessment of the probability that IMF-style therapy could be successful: 'about as much chance as a one-armed blind man in a dark room trying to shove a pound of melted butter into a wild cat's left ear with a red-hot needle.' "
John Baesch
relayed news of the February 18 sale of a private collection of
PGW first editions. The Christie's auction included rare
copies of Not George Washington (1907), which sold for $4,550,
and Love Among the Chickens (1906), which fetched the top price
of the day, a whopping $5,000. In addition, a 1934 copy of Very
Good, Jeeves was practically given away at $2,800. Four of the
top ten lots were sold to Americans. Francine Swift tells
us that the seller was an engineering consultant from Southport,
Lancs, who started his collection in 1975 with the purchase of
a dozen first editions for £1.50 and added to it over the
course of the next 25 years. The estimated sale value of the collection
was $66,000, but it sold for a royal $110,000. Which shows that
you really can collect when you collect.
March 10 was World Book Day, and to commemorate
the event, a poll was published in Great Britain to report the
nation's all-time favorite authors. As Richard Vine
noted on alt.fan.wodehouse, "Number 50 on the list was
a certain W. Shakespeare of Stratford. But number 48 was Sir Pelham
Grenville Wodehouse." It is with utmost satisfaction that
we reflect on Plum beating the Bard in any such survey--but
only 48th??
Tony Ring
and Joel Brattin report, separately, that the British Library
is currently presenting an exhibit entitled "Chapter and
Verse: 1000 Years of English Literature." Among the items
on display is the first page of the typescript, with pencilled
corrections, of Galahad at
Blandings (The
Brinksmanship of Galahad Threepwood,
US), and one of the Low sketches from which the famous Low drawing
was built up. A page of the typescript is reproduced in the catalog
of the exhibit. The catalog, with color illustrations, is available
from the British Library bookshop for £4.95 (e-mail
bl-bookshop@bl.uk).
The exhibit runs through October 15, 2000.
More news about the longed-for Wodehouse
Playhouse videotapes: Chris Heather reported to PGW-Net
that a friend of his who works at the BBC has confirmed that chances
are very slim for getting the series released on videotape. Here's
why: "Video wasn't around in the early '70s, so home
video entertainment rights weren't secured at the time.
Going back later can sometimes mean vast sums to actors, scriptwriters,
producers, musicians . . . and an unbelievable amount of time
and hassle. Revenue from 200 sales wouldn't cover the paper-clips,
and decisions on video releases are always commercial ones. The
good news is that most of the Wodehouse Playhouse programmes were
shown recently on one of the BBC's commercial cable/satellite
channels, BBC Arena. If I spot them coming up again it might be
worth a note to PGW-Net. This is much more practical than waiting
for videos to come out!" Stay tuned for further developments.
Following up on the news (reported in the
last Plum Lines)
that Everyman Library has just begun the reissue of 80 Wodehouse
books in hardback collectors' editions, Tony Ring informs
us that members of Wodehouse societies throughout the world will
be offered a discount of 25% on all orders--not just the
launch editions but the entire series (which will be published
over a series of years). TWS members should be getting bookmarks
marking this exciting series with this issue of Plum Lines. Tony
says that the price will be £9.99 per volume before the discount,
with added charges for postage and handling.
Charles Gould
has been for years a leading source of books by and about Wodehouse.
Dan Garrison wrote the extraordinarily useful Who's
Who in Wodehouse. "So,"
I hear you asking, "what?" Well, in a recent catalog,
Charles described Dan's book as "the most useful,
accurate, imaginative, intelligent, complete, amusing, and satisfactory
reference book ever produced about anything." Underpraise,
I'd call it.
Charles's address, for the not-yet-sufficiently-booked,
is P. O. Box 543, Kent CT 06757, phone (860) 927-6074.
--Aunt Dahlia and the Oldest Member