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Explore Vanderbilt University\u2019s extensive collection of manuscripts, letters, first editions, and rare memorabilia related to the life and literary legacy of P. G. Wodehouse.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c” background_enable_mask_style=”on” background_mask_style=”chevrons” background_mask_color=”gcid-241cb457-aeb3-4f68-b3dd-63a6046634e7″ custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c%22:%91%22background_color%22%93,%22gcid-241cb457-aeb3-4f68-b3dd-63a6046634e7%22:%91%22background_mask_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_3,1_3″ admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ background_color=”gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” border_color_all=”gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c” border_style_all=”double” border_width_top=”6px” border_width_right=”6px” border_width_left=”6px” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c%22:%91%22border_color_all%22,%22border_color_top%22,%22border_color_right%22,%22border_color_left%22%93,%22gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Page copy” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” link_font=”|700|||on||||” link_text_color=”#0C71C3″ custom_padding=”20px|20px|20px|20px|false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-heading-color%22:%91%22header_text_color%22,%22header_4_text_color%22,%22header_3_text_color%22,%22header_2_text_color%22,%22header_5_text_color%22,%22header_6_text_color%22,%22quote_text_color%22%93,%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22%93,%22gcid-secondary-color%22:%91%22quote_border_color%22%93}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Nearly a century and a quarter after leaving his beloved Dulwich College\u2014and, more remarkably, some 45 years after his death\u2014P. G. Wodehouse has arrived on the campus of a distinguished American institution.<\/p>\n
The P. G. Wodehouse Collection at Vanderbilt University (VU) in Nashville, Tennessee, is the outcome of an idea voiced by TWS member Anita Avery at the 2015 Psmith in Pseattle convention. With the approval of TWS\u2019s Board of Directors, it was eventually brought to life by Anita, Ken Clevenger,\u00a0 Arthur Robinson, Tad Boehmer, Ananth Kaitharam, and Noel Merrill over the ensuing two years. Begun with a couple of hundred items from Anita\u2019s own collection and soon after augmented by a similar amount of material from Arthur, followed by donations from TWS members, the Collection now numbers more than 1,445 items that have been donated by TWS members. It is growing steadily year by year thanks to continuing donations and to purchases made by Vanderbilt University.<\/p>\n
Housed in the university\u2019s Special Collections and University Archives, this rich repository of Wodehouse works offers public access to a breadth and depth of Wodehouseana unavailable anywhere else in the United States. Literary scholars can study the comedic genius in depth. Musicians and theater impresarios can find resources for play revivals or period concerts. Avid Wodehouse readers will find a plethora of hard-to-find materials\u2014and have a jolly good time doing so!<\/p>\n
The goal of the Collection is to acquire and preserve U.K. and U.S. first editions of works by Wodehouse, plus first editions of works about or related to Wodehouse. The Collection is organized according to the \u201cbible\u201d of Wodehouse collectors, Eileen McIlvaine\u2019s P. G. Wodehouse: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist<\/em>. Accordingly, holdings are divided into sections devoted to specific types of works\u2014novels, omnibus volumes, books about Wodehouse, periodicals, dramatic works, music, letters, manuscripts, etc.\u2014and assigned the McIlvaine numbers that have become the internationally accepted standard for identifying specific editions and issues of works by, about, or related to Wodehouse. To accommodate types of Wodehouse-related items not included in the McIlvaine structure, four additional sections have been added to the Collection\u2019s online database: television adaptations, ephemera and collectibles, journals (Plum Lines<\/em>, Wooster Sauce<\/em>), and TWS documents and ephemera. This extended structure broadens the Collection\u2019s scope and keeps track of what has been donated and what is still needed.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][gg_slider gid=”15769479″ lc_width=”350″ random=”on” autoplay=”1″ disabled_on=”on|off|off” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/gg_slider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px|20px||20px|false|true” border_width_right=”6px” border_color_right=”gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c” border_style_right=”double” border_width_bottom=”6px” border_color_bottom=”gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c” border_style_bottom=”double” border_width_left=”6px” border_color_left=”gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c” border_style_left=”double” box_shadow_style=”preset3″ global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e%22:%91%22background_color%22%93,%22gcid-484d413a-49bb-4287-be23-38c266b6899c%22:%91%22border_color_left%22,%22border_color_right%22,%22border_color_bottom%22%93}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” link_font=”|600|||on||||” link_text_color=”#0C71C3″ background_color=”gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-heading-color%22:%91%22header_text_color%22,%22header_4_text_color%22,%22header_3_text_color%22,%22header_2_text_color%22,%22header_5_text_color%22,%22header_6_text_color%22,%22quote_text_color%22,%22header_text_color%22,%22header_4_text_color%22,%22header_3_text_color%22,%22header_2_text_color%22,%22header_5_text_color%22,%22header_6_text_color%22,%22quote_text_color%22,%22header_text_color%22,%22header_4_text_color%22,%22header_3_text_color%22,%22header_2_text_color%22,%22header_5_text_color%22,%22header_6_text_color%22,%22quote_text_color%22%93,%22gcid-body-color%22:%91%22text_text_color%22,%22text_text_color%22,%22text_text_color%22%93,%22gcid-secondary-color%22:%91%22quote_border_color%22,%22quote_border_color%22,%22quote_border_color%22%93,%22gcid-51d58238-cdd6-4561-b27c-b04102b7f18e%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”]<\/p>\n In addition to the various sections of enumerated catalogued items, there are two scrapbook-style collections of photographs, memorabilia, and other ephemera. The large collections of Erik Thomsen and Margaret and Doug Stow are not catalogued by individual items, but their breadth and depth are best represented by overall numbers in various categories.<\/p>\n Erik Thomsen\u2019s extraordinary memorabilia album, which has been digitized, is singular among the Collection\u2019s holdings. Donated by the late Mr. Thomsen\u2019s family, the album\u2019s 234 items include numerous formal and casual photos of Wodehouse, several with Ethel, photos of Wodehouse portraits, and photos Thomsen\u2019s visits to Remsenburg; slides; negatives; letters from Wodehouse; letters from Ethel and PGW\u2019s sister-in-law Nella; carbon copies of Thomsen\u2019s letters to Wodehouse, Ethel, and Peter Schwed; audiotapes of interviews and conversations; news clippings and other ephemera; a signed copy of Jill the Reckless<\/em>; and a sixteen-page carbon-copy manuscript of a rarely seen article by Wodehouse. A professional photographer and amateur artist, Erik developed a warm friendship with Wodehouse in the last two years of Plum\u2019s life.<\/p>\n The Margaret and Doug Stow collection of four large scrapbooks, spanning 1981\u20132015, includes decades of memorabilia and ephemera from gatherings and conventions of The Wodehouse Society. Eighty-nine album pages of photos plus 26 individual photos are a tribute to past and current members. A wide range of 182 items\u2014many of which were typeset by hand and printed on the Stows\u2019 antique press for Paper Crane Press\u2014includes mementoes of TWS events, bookmarks, handcrafted keepsake booklets featuring pieces or quotes by Wodehouse, convention announcements, programs, a Jeeves Christmas card, playbills, several Pauline Blanc publications, letters, pamphlets, and news clippings. Sketches and proposed Wodehouse alphabet quatrains for Plum Pudding,<\/em> compiled by Doug Stow and illustrated by Chris Marrinan, round out this comprehensive chronicle of TWS\u2019s activities up to 2015.<\/p>\n The Collection also includes the society\u2019s revered Tome, Volume 1, containing TWS\u2019s historical records for the years 1980\u20132005. This bound volume of over 284 pages includes Bill Blood’s first calls for a Wodehouse Society in 1980, early membership lists, photos of members, invitations, publicity, several letters and cards from Lady Ethel Wodehouse, Comments in Passing<\/em> newsletters, early organizational and policy documents, convention information, programs and attendee lists, playbills, proclamations, book reviews, newspaper clippings and articles, dedications of PGW plaques, letters from TWS members, and clippings about prominent members.<\/p>\n At the Collection\u2019s dedication at Vanderbilt University in September 2024, University Librarian Jon Shaw spoke of the exciting vision for the Collection\u2019s future, which includes \u201cdigitizing as many [as permissions and copyright laws allow] of these materials as we can and making them accessible online\u201d as well as \u201cteaming with the British Library, where Wodehouse\u2019s personal archive is on loan, in this digital preservation initiative.\u201d He also noted: \u201cOur ultimate goal is to make these materials accessible as broadly as possible and to preserve them in perpetuity for the rest of the world.\u201d The dedication included an wonderful exhibit of holdings in the Collection.<\/a><\/p>\n Anita Avery is the TWS Project Leader for the Collection. She coordinates and vets potential donations to the Collection according to guidelines mutually agreed upon with VU. VU staff record acquisitions and classify, catalogue, and shelve items within the VU library system. In addition, VU has purchased other items for the Collection which are only included in their catalogue<\/a>. An alternative method for searching VU\u2019s catalogue can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n