This page covers comments received in 1997.

• Go to How I Met Plum, Vol II: 1998.
• Go to How I Met Plum, Vol III: 1999.

From: Biju Kewalram
Date: 12/31/97

I discovered P G Wodehouse (interestingly, I have always referred to him in full, never Plum or even just Wodehouse always P G Wodehouse) during one particularly intense monsoon season in Bombay.

Those were the days when I could read for the sake of reading, rather than reading with a purpose. Our local circulating library ( a strong Indian tradition, circulating libraries loaned you books for a fee ) had a shelf full of PG Wodehouse for 40 paise (equiv USD 0.02c) and was within umbrella distance of my home.

The Psmith series was clearly my favourite and while I identified with Mike, who was always the decent guy getting into scrapes, I wanted to be like Psmith, who did everything with the greatest of ease and did it well.

My absolute favourite expression, through all the books is "Bertie (or whoever) started". The expression is evocative of a rabbit jumping out of its skin and carries with it an impression of the starting person wearing the expression of a stunned and shocked mullet.

From: John Berryman
Date: 12/29/97

I took the Jeeves Omnibus as "tent reading" during a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area about seven years ago.

After a day of flyfishing for northern pike and smallmouth bass, carrying my canoe on my back from lake to lake, I'd return to camp, eat something dehydrated (I don't kill fish), drink a medicinal compound I had had the good sense to carry with me, light my pipe, and read about Bertie and Jeeves.

By accident, I found the perfect place to meet these gentlemen.  My howls of laughter were heard only by loons and beavers.

I have since given the Jeeves Omnibus as gifts to no fewer than three single, middle aged, female objects-of-my-affection. None of them found it funny.

I am still single, and until I meet a woman who dissolves in hysteria at the thought of "Scaly" aunts, I probably will remain so.

From: anne samowitz
Date: 12/27/97

on a rather boring family holiday on the island of Corfu I  found myself with nothing left to read (This was after reading Gerald Durrells 'my Family  etc...') My mother presented me with  a  book by PG. I must say, I've never laughed so hard nor so loudly . The very choice of words filled me  with  delight! Of course 20 years on, I don't remember the title of the book, and daren't guess it for fear of offense, but I do seem to remember the Empress was present, as was Ld Emsworth and various other characters. My favourite moment in the book was when a couple overheard the Empress snorting and unaware that the sound was porcine, declared the 'speaker' to be talking in German! Classic!

Nearly sixty years ago I first met Bertie and Jeeves in a book of short stories I was reading for English class in junior high school. I was immediately hooked for life, and have since read, I believe, everything that Wodehouse has written. If I have missed any, it was not for lack of effort.

From: D. Stringer
Date: 12/25/97

A friend loaned me some of the Jeeves novels a couple of years ago, when I was deeply depressed.  I spent the the whole summer devouring one after another, laughing all the way.  Then our PBS station began showing the inimitable Laurie/Fry series-- so I got this huge shot of Wodehouse, both literary and visual, within a few months.  Best thing that could've happened to me!

From: Donna
Date: 12/25/97

When I was in high school I went often to the library and my mother suggested a PG Wodehouse book.  It was a Blandings Castle book (sadly I don't recall exactly which one.) I enjoyed the book so much that I read through every PG Wodehouse book in the library (about 30 as I recall.)  Since then I have turned to Wodehouse when my spirits need  a lift.

From: Srilatha
Date: 12/25/97

I read my first P.G.Wodehouse when I was 13. It was a rainy day and there were no other books in my school library.

The book I read was Damsel in Distress and I was hooked forever.

From: Roger Thiedeman
Date: 12/23/97

For my 14th birthday, a schoolmate gave me a gift of "Thank you, Jeeves". I became immediately 'hooked' on the inimitable style of PGW, and made a determined effort to read as many of his books as possible. Thirty-four years later, I remain a devoted admirer.

From: Celia Donohue
Date: 12/22/97

I was first introduced to P.G. Wodehouse by a co-worker many years ago. She was a great fan of British Comedy and literature. Whenever she was not actually seated at her desk she could be seen walking around with her nose (literally - bad eyesight) in a P.G. Wodehouse novel. Soon after I was reading the books myself and found the shows on PBS, and as I was already an Anglophile and comedy fiend, I was soon hooked by Jeeves' sardonic wit.

From: Frances Freimiller LaRosa
Date: 12/21/97

My first book was "The Code of the Woosters" when I was a teenager.  It has been a long standing love affair ever since.  I use to read the Master riding the train into Philadelphia where I was often embarrasses by laughing out loud.  His use of the English Language is like poetry to me.  I recently joined the Phila. Chapter of the Wodehouse Society and at the first meeting, I knew immediately that I was among friends!

From: Robert Premeaux Jr.
Date: 12/19/97

        I used to see these books at the bookstore, all by the same author, lined up in an impressive display...they took up more space than all of Dickens', Thackeray's, and Hemingway's works took up combined.  I was an undergraduate English major at the time and thought I had a pretty good handle on all the major authors, but this Wodehouse guy was a mystery to me.  I finally asked a professor of mine, a guy who's read everything that has been printed, twice, and he said, "Oh, that's the stuff to give the troops!  Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves, don't you know, what?"

        Okay, so he didn't say that exactly, but he told me it was of the best light comedy ever written, not to be taken seriously like Evelyn Waugh or Spinoza, but worth taking a gander at.  So I did. I bought _The Heart of a Goof_ based on the look of the blighters on the front cover, divers chappies in plus-fours and tweed everything...real serious looking foursome, don't you know.

        Anyway, I spent a few days rolling around the apartment floor, busting out at the sides as I read Wodehouse and his uncanny style that made me find a joy in the game of golf never before experienced (especially on the bally course).

        From the tip of my professor, I eased into the Bertie/Jeeves saga, and now I have a bookmark that I push along through the several novels and  collections that make up the saga; I never stop reading them.  I mean, no less than once a week at least, I settle down and start reading where I left off in whatever Wooster novel I left on in.

        Sooner or later I'll get around to the Blandings Castle thingummies and all that other sort of rot. Probably later.

From: Shakeel Akhtar
Date: 12/17/97

One of my seniors told me he was a fan of Wodehouse . One day I came across some books of Wodehouse in a bookstall and bought them . Then I found that my senior was still childish in his selection of authors. The books that I had bought were the first ones written by Plum . Those books were Pothunters , The Prefect's Uncle and Headman of Kay's.

Then one day I stumbled on a real Wodehousian classic "Luck of the Bodkins" and then I knew that I was hooked onto Wodehouse for life . I have read nearly 30 to 40 novels of Wodehouse and I have got a personal collection of 15 of his books . Till now Luck of the Bodkins remains my personal best and Psmith is my hero.

From: Vasuki Narayan
Date: 12/16/97

My parents, my uncles, in fact all my family with the sole exception of my aunt were big Wodehouse fans.  My aunt thought Plum was no big deal, and was constantly arguing with my uncle over topic.

At the age of seven, I decided to find out for myself, and started on "Leave it to Psmith".  Unfortunately, my grasp on language was not good enough for me to enjoy the wit, and I ended up siding with my aunt.

A few years later, someone gave me "Joy in the Morning" as a gift, and my father bet me that I could not get through two pages without laughing.  I tried it and lost.  And I have been laughing ever since...

From: Mattski
Date: 12/15/97

I borrowed a copy of "Psmith Journalist" to read during a short bus ride. I immediately became so entranced, I missed my stop...by several miles. As I awaited another bus, passers-by wondered as I laughed out loud, standing in a downpour. When the bus finally arrived, I continued reading and, you guessed it, missed yet another stop. This type of thing continued until, two hours late, I arrived at my destination, thoroughly soaked, famished, and grinning like an idiot. That was 20 years ago, and that idiotic grin persists.

Passersby still comment on it.

From: Molly Jacobson
Date: 12/12/97

My father primed me to love P. G. Wodehouse by calling me "the pink chappette,", and by "showering my upturned face with kisses." Ever since I realized what "Home, Jeeves" really meant I've been hooked.  At my house one knows if someone is reading a P.G. because they are always laughing out loud.

From: Mark Logan
Date: 12/10/97

My late Grandfather had a great collection of P.G Wodehouse. I can remember him crying tears of laughter while sitting in his lazy chair with one of the works and a pipe or cigar.  I picked up one and have been hooked ever since. His works are about the only author that I regularly read certain titles again and again and again. They only get better!

From: Mark Crew
Date: 12/9/97

Just today 12-9-97 in Newsweek 12-15-97, cyberscope page under the article "The web Answer Man."

From: Uncle Aussie, http://www.compassnet.com/aussie
Date: 12/4/97

It's fairly well documented in my mother's diaries that I received a goodly exposure to the works of P.G.Wodehouse "en utero".  There was a genetic predisposition to this type of thing on both the maternal and paternal side, and as my parental units were living in New York City at the time (1952-53) of my incubation, they were able to get the stuff more or less fresh from the source.  I was not able to read P.G.W. on my own until I acquired the knack of literacy, so I spent a few early years with Dr. Seuss and Walt Kelly, then helped myself to the family stock of Wodehouse, always available on the shelves (note to TAK: I soaked up virtually all of DeVries as well).

From: Jeroen Booij
Date: 12/1/97

Having been in Cambridge to work for six weeks, I found it time to read something by a typical Cambrigean author. That's how I first read 'Porterhouse Blue' by Tom Sharpe. After having read about all his books I remembered I read somewhere Sharpe was called the modern Wodehouse. On the Amsterdam second hand bookmarket I saw coincidentally some pockets by this Wodehouse. I bought them all four and I can't stop reading them now! Extremely funny!

From: Sharon Bateman, http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5514
Date: 11/29/97

A friend introduced me to a Jeeves and Wooster book, I found it hard going at first as the dry wit needs to be appreciated.  But like a good wine I got a taste for it and now can't get enough of the books.  I also listen to the audio books expertly read by Jonathon Cecil.

From: Soh E Shaun
Date: 11/29/97

I met Wodehouse while reading this book entitled 'The Comedy Collection', a bumber humour book which features various satirical writers and excerpts of their short stories. 'Young Men in spats' and 'inimitable jeeves' was in the book.

From: L.J. Grammercy
Date: 11/28/97

I was given a Wodehouse book by a relative.  Also I saw the Blandings episode on PBS.  I hope they will repeat it this year.

From: Jenz Kjellberg, http://hem.passagen.se/jezze
Date: 11/27/97

Doing my military service as a navy cook, life seemed somewhat what's-the-word occasionally. In the library I found a copy of "Ice in the bedroom", which I took back with me. Been a fanatic collector ever since, scraping together round 50 books, including a rare first edition of a book called "Bvrsspel och kdrlek" from 1919 in excellent shape. I'm sorry I don't know what the name is in english, but if you mail me in a week, I shall have found out.

From: Howard S. Becker, http://weber.u.washington.edu/~hbecker
Date: 11/26/97

I don't know. I started reading him when I was a kid and, after the first one, I just kept going to the library and taking home everything they had.  God knows what a kid in Chicago made of all that.  Then I didn't read anything for years and saw a volume of collected stories that was quite cheap so I bought it and there you are!

From: Anssi Mattila, http://www.siba.fi/~amattila
Date: 11/25/97

As a young lad - 14 perhaps - I found in my parent's bookshelf a Finnish translation of "Joy in the Morning", which my father had given as a present to my mother when they were... er... wooing - I think that's the term.

I read it - laughed - and loved it. After some years I came across a copy of "The Inimitable Jeeves", struggled through the English, and have been a fan ever since. I have now almost all of his books...

From: Casper H., http://www.enschede.com/bewoners/freud
Date: 11/25/97

I knew about the guy.. but discovered him first in Frank Muir's collection of English literature...100 pages devoted to Wodehouse, and all of them good (well, okay really). I've been collecting the books ever since (mind you, only cheap pockets). I'm stuck at 35 books, boohoo.

From: moniquex
Date: 11/24/97

I first encountered Jeeves when I was at the University of Washington and a housemate of various and sundry ethnic groups, not the least of which was my friend, Tilak Subrahmanian, from India.

One late night after a marvelous argument and a meal of dal (provided by him as a curry cure for a chest cold I was enduring), I asked him for something to read. He gave one of the Jeeves book and I said "oh, yes, thank you very much" wondering how long I must politely keep it until I could return the book unread; and it sat moldering on my nightstand for months.

But on a Sunday night, late, nothing to read, no libraries open, in desperation I picked up the book and began reading. Wodehouse captured me with a description of I believe a special morning concoction which, provided by Jeeves himself, blessed Bertram with a much-needed restorative. I read, laughing aloud, until dawn.

The next morning, my friend said to me, "Finally read the Wodehouse, hmmmmmm?" I have
lost track of Tilak, but to this day I read and re-read Wodehouse and every time I read them I wistfully think of Tilak and wonder how he is doing....I owe him an incredible debt and would like to thank him again for the lasting gift of Wodehouse.

The next year, when a friend came to visit me from Australia, he saw my then growing collection of Jeeves books and said, "Well why are you reading THOSE."  I knew he was NOT the man for me when his reaction to my reply of, "Because I like them and because they're brilliant," was a grimace.

In fact, if anyone knows of a Tilak Subrahmanian who was at the University of Washington School of Engineering in the late '80's, PLEASE pass on my e-mail and alias. He won't recognize the alias, but he MAY recognize the story! I would LOVE to talk about Jeeves again with Tilak one day........

 SEE YOU AT THE DRONES, BOYS!!!!!!!

From: Eduardo-Juan Nadal Manera
Date: 11/24/97

Cuando tenma unos 14 aqos, lem todos los libros de P. G. Wodehouse, en la cama. Los trama de la biblioteca de la Casa de Cultura, de la cual era socio. Tengo ahora 56 aqos. Me acuerdo que muchas veces me rema solo, al leer sus obras, y en una ocasisn vino mi padre a mi habitacisn para ver que ocurrma. Si qye fallecis en los Estados Unidos, y me gustarma conocer sus obras completas y saber de su vida, como transcurris.

From:  Glenda Rutherford
Date: 11/23/97

I first discovered Wodehouse when I was about 13 year old and a favorite cousin, who was a high school senior introduced me to him. My first introduction was to the Jeeves and Bertie stories; then I branched out.

The man was an absolute genius! I've never since found an author who could make me laugh the way he could. His works are sophisticated, wonderfully witty and lighten my life.

I will also NEVER forget my wonderful cousin for bringing such entertainment into my life.

From: Lisa Reinhard
Date: 11/20/97

I've been sitting here trying to remember a time when I DIDN'T read and appreciate P.G. Wodehouse and am having a hard time! I suppose I stumbled upon the books in the library and was hooked! (a long time ago!) Lord Emsworth, Psmith, they're all friends of mine.

When I was about 16 or so, I used to read the Jeeves stories out loud to my mother while she did the ironing and I remember laughing too hard to see the words!

About a year before he died I wrote a fan letter to Mr. Wodehouse and he answered me back! I was thrilled!

His books have given me a great deal of pleasure over the years!

From: Tom Kreitzberg
Date: 11/20/97

In high school, I started reading Peter DeVries's comic novels. Spread throughout them were several references to a writer named Wodehouse. He sounded the sort of fellow to track down once I'd read all the DeVries books my library offered.

I found a Wodehouse book -- one with Galahad Threepwood, I think -- and read it. Then I read another, and another. I'd read several of the Blandings Castle books before I tried anything with Bertie and Jeeves.

You can go on all you like about Wodehouse as the master stylist, the great simile craftsman, and I'll cheer you on. Say it's the very ease with which his words flow that makes him underappreciated as a writer, and I may buy you a drink. But what I like most about him is this: his stories are funny.