The September 15, 1915, issue of The Saturday Evening Post featured a comic short story by P.G. Wodehouse in which his two most famous characters, the dim-witted aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his preternaturally adaptable valet Jeeves made their first appearances.
Well, yes and no. The story, Extricating Young Gussie, is narrated by a recognizable Bertie, but his surname is never given (although it is implied that it is Mannering-Phipps) and Jeeves himself has only a minor role and is not yet the genius at saving Bertie and his friends from their folly that he would later become.
Bertie’s ferocious Aunt Agatha also makes her debut appearance. The story was published in the 1917 collection, The Man With Two Left Feet.
Jeeves and Wooster didn’t begin to be fleshed out as characters until 1916. They have given me and countless others great joy over the years.
I especially love Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s incarnations of them on television. Here’s a taste.
