Editing P. G. Wodehouse (section)

===Best-seller: 1930s===
During the 1930s Wodehouse's theatrical work tailed off. He wrote or adapted four plays for the West End; ''Leave it to Psmith'' (1930), which he adapted in collaboration with Ian Hay, was the only one to have a long run.{{refn|It ran for 156 performances; ''Who's Who'' co-written with Bolton ran for 19 performances; ''Good Morning. Bill'' for 78; and ''The Inside Stand'' for 50.<ref>Donaldson, p. 360</ref>|group= n}} The reviewer in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' praised the play, but commented: "It is Mr Wodehouse's own inimitable narrative comments and descriptions in his own person of the antics of his puppets that one misses. They cannot be got into a play and they are at least half the fun of the novels."<ref>"Wodehouse on the Stage", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 September 1930, p. 15</ref> In 1934 Wodehouse collaborated with Bolton on the book for [[Cole Porter]]'s ''[[Anything Goes]]'' (Porter wrote his own lyrics), but at the last minute their version was almost entirely rewritten by others at the instigation of the producer, who disliked the original script.{{refn|Bolton and Wodehouse's original book was set on a shipwrecked ocean liner; shortly before the Broadway opening a shipping disaster off the coast of [[New Jersey]] caused the deaths of 138 passengers and crew members. The producer decided that the plot would seem in bad taste in the circumstances, and was evidently glad of the pretext to jettison the original book, with which he was unhappy.<ref>McCrum, pp. 227–228</ref> For the London production in 1935 Wodehouse revised the dialogue and rewrote some of Porter's lyrics, substituting British topical references for the original American ones.<ref>Green (1980), p. 12</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/21/magazine/l-benito-mussolini-993425.html "Benito Mussolini"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701011613/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/21/magazine/l-benito-mussolini-993425.html |date=1 July 2017 }}, ''The New York Times'', 21 August 1994</ref>|group= n}} Concentrating on writing novels and short stories, Wodehouse reached the peak of his productivity in this decade, averaging two books each year, and grossing an annual £100,000.<ref>Donaldson, pp. 252–253; and Usborne, p. 24</ref>{{refn|The average weekly industrial wage in Britain in 1938 was equal to £180 a year.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1956/feb/21/industrial-wages "Industrial Wages"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315181658/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1956/feb/21/industrial-wages |date=15 March 2015 }}, ''[[Hansard]]'', 21 February 1956, Vol. 549, cols. 177–179</ref> Wodehouse's income was more than 500 times as much.|group=n}}
His practice of dividing his time between Britain and America caused Wodehouse difficulties with the tax authorities of both countries. Both the UK [[Inland Revenue]] and the US [[Internal Revenue Service]] sought to tax him as a resident.{{refn|The two countries had not at that time reached the agreement that income tax is payable in one country or the other, but not in both.<ref>Donaldson, p. 153</ref>|group= n}} The matter was settled after lengthy negotiations, but the Wodehouses decided to change their residential status beyond doubt by moving to France, where they bought a house near [[Le Touquet]] in the north.<ref>Jasen, p. 139</ref>

{{Quote box|width=40%|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right| quote= There is no question that in making Mr P. G. Wodehouse a doctor of letters the University has done the right and popular thing. Everyone knows at least some of his many works and has felt all the better for the gaiety of his wit and the freshness of his style.|salign = right|source= — ''[[The Times]]'' on Wodehouse's honorary doctorate, June 1939<ref>"The Encaenia", ''The Times'', 22 June 1939, p. 17</ref>}}

In 1935 Wodehouse created the last of his regular cast of principal characters, Lord Ickenham, otherwise known as [[Uncle Fred]], who, in Usborne's words, "leads the dance in four novels and a short story{{space}}... a whirring dynamo of misrule".<ref>Usborne, p. 127</ref> His other books from the decade include ''[[Right Ho, Jeeves]]'', which Donaldson judged his best work, ''[[Uncle Fred in the Springtime]]'', which the writer [[Bernard Levin]] considered the best, and ''Blandings Castle'', which contains "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", which Rudyard Kipling thought "one of the most perfect short stories I have ever read".<ref name=dnb/>

Other leading literary figures who admired Wodehouse were [[A. E. Housman]], [[Max Beerbohm]] and [[Hilaire Belloc]];<ref name=dnb/> on the radio and in print Belloc called Wodehouse "the best writer of our time: the best living writer of English{{space}}... the head of my profession".<ref>Belloc, p. 5</ref> Wodehouse regarded Belloc's plaudit as "a gag, to get a rise out of serious-minded authors whom he disliked".<ref>Hart-Davis, p. 403</ref>{{refn|Among those to whom Wodehouse referred was [[Hugh Walpole]]. Wodehouse wrote to a friend, William Townsend, "I can't remember if I ever told you about meeting Hugh when I was at Oxford getting my D.Litt. I was staying with the Vice-Chancellor at Magdalen and he blew in and spent the day. It was just after Hilaire Belloc had said that I was the best living English writer. It was just a gag, of course, but it worried Hugh terribly. He said to me, 'Did you see what Belloc said about you?' I said I had. 'I wonder why he said that.' 'I wonder,' I said. Long silence. 'I can't imagine why he said that,' said Hugh. I said I couldn't, either. Another long silence. 'It seems such an extraordinary thing to say!' 'Most extraordinary.' Long silence again. 'Ah, well,' said Hugh, having apparently found the solution, 'the old man's getting very old.'"<ref>Wodehouse, ''Performing Flea'', Letter of 1 August 1945, p. 128</ref>|group=n}} Wodehouse was never sure that his books had literary merit as well as popular appeal, and, Donaldson suggests, must have been overwhelmed when the University of Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate of letters on him in June 1939.<ref>Donaldson, p. 161</ref>{{refn|''The Observer'' suggested that Jeeves should receive an honorary MA at the same time.<ref>"The Universities", ''The Observer'', 28 May 1939, p. 15</ref>|group= n}} His visit to England for the awarding ceremony was the last time he set foot in his native land.<ref>Green (1981), p. 247</ref>