WODEHOUSE, P. G.

£7,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Autograph manuscript of his short story "By Advice of Counsel". The original manuscript of an early short story in a significantly different version to that which was published. The story tells of the efforts of Jack Roach and Gentleman Bailey to prevent their friend, Jerry Moore, from marrying Jane Tuxton. The manuscript reveals extensive deletions and corrections which are perfectly legible.The published version of the story includes a deaf traveller who is subjected to Jack Roach's story, but is entirely uncomprehending. The traveller in the present manuscript has no hearing problems and converses, albeit unwillingly, with Jack.The story was first published within Strand Magazine in July 1910, and in a slightly different version within the American Pictorial Review in September 1910. The latter in not recorded by McIlvaine. The story was first published in book form within the author's The Man Upstairs in 1914.Two earlier titles are crossed out: "The Masterfulness of the Jack Rabbit", and "The Bristling of the Doormat". Wodehouse signs the manuscript with his name and address ("Hotel Earle, 103 Waverley Place, New York"). Wodehouse stayed at this hotel during visits to New York between 1909 and 1913.Provenance: Private Collection of Leslie Havergal Bradshaw, one of Wodehouse's earliest friends in the U.S.; Sotheby's, New York, 15 October 1982, lot 333; Private Collection.

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