P.G. Wodehouse Referenced Booze . . . A Lot
Brews you can use
Ah, yes. Three of my sons, post-wedding Mass last Saturday. It was, after all the struggles and cost, a glorious day. That’s Alex, the groom, to the far left, then Michael and Jack to the far right. The other three guys are school chums.
Yes, “chums.” I’ve been thinking a lot about P.G. Wodehouse lately after Econtalk’s Russ Roberts jokingly said he considers himself learned because he knows the “G” stands for “Grenville.”
For awhile, I read a lot of P.G. If memory serves, my editors at Touchstone recommended him as one of the finest prose stylists of the 20th century. He was also a younger contemporary of GKC. It seems a lot of people involved in “the Chesterton game” (Gilbert Magazine, the American Chesterton Society, etc.) were PGW fans as well.
I don’t recall ever hearing that Wodehouse and GKC hung out, but I suspect they would’ve gotten along well. Both were funny and both liked to drink. Isn’t that always a good match?
Wodehouse referenced GKC a few times in his fiction, including this one which is pretty funny:
At that moment, however, the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G.K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.
If you’re acquainted with GKC’s huge girth, you realize that must’ve been one really loud noise. The mere fact that Wodehouse used the analogy testifies to (i) GKC’s popularity back then, and (ii) public consciousness that he was a huge man.
P.G: Funny Booze Writer
This is one of my favorite articles of all time at Modern Drunkard Magazine:
Plum Brandy
A salute to the incomparable–and largely inebriate–man of letters, P.G. Wodehouse.
It’s a rarity: short, easy-to-read, cultured,