Wodehouse (P.G.) Psmith USA, autograph manuscript of his novel "Psmith, Journalist", signed at end and dated "11 November 1909, Hotel Earle, 103 Waverley Place", 175pp. comprising Chapters I-XIII (pp.1-92), lacking the last few lines of XIII; Chapters XVI-XX (pp.110-150); Chapters XXV-XXX (new pagination pp.1-42, with a p.18a but no p.19, fair copy with with occasional corrections, often in pencil, light browning to leaves, very occasional chipping with loss to the odd letter, some creasing and occasional fraying, each leaf preserved in individual acid-free archival pocket, housed together in custom archival drop-back box, 4to, New York, 1909.

⁂ The autograph manuscript of an early Wodehouse novel from the author's crucial breakthrough period when he found his voice as the great comic novelist of the 20th century. Wodehouse manuscripts are rare at auction, especially so from such an important stage of the writer's career.

The character of Psmith was introduced by Wodehouse in the second half of Mike (1909). The character, with suave sophistication, unflappable temperament and dry wit, was a departure from schoolboy characters that had characterised Wodehouse's early career and was popular with readers. Wodehouse swiftly revisited the character in Psmith in the City (serialised October 1908 - March 1909) before making a second trip to New York where he successfully sold two stories for $500. The income from this sale far exceeded his usual rate and encouraged the author to stay in the city to take advantage of the lucrative American market. It was with this aim in mind that "Psmith USA" (changed on p. 71 of the present manuscript to the published Psmith, Journalist) was begun.

While Wodehouse sold several stories in the US he was unable to establish a permanent relationship with any publisher that might have guaranteed an income and therefore returned to the UK in 1910. Still however hoping to appeal to his transatlantic readers, he combined a reworking of the plot of the present work with a romance, to be published in the US as The Prince and Betty, 1912 (quite different from the work of the same name that appeared in the UK). The three missing chapters from the present manuscript would appear (in reworked form) at the end of the US edition of The Prince and Betty. Psmith, Journalist would be serialised in The Captain from October 1909 to March 1910, before finally appearing in book form in 1915 (see lot XXX).