Books

First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the month of publication: "To Seymour Hicks from Professor P. G. Wodehouse. Not to be swept away! P/W. August 1906". Presentation copies of the humorist's first adult novel are rare: we can trace only one other inscribed copy in auction records. Sir Edward Seymour Hicks (1871-1949) was an English actor and theatre manager. He and Wodehouse met in 1906, when Hicks invited the author to become resident lyricist at the Aldwych Theatre. Their first musical together, The Beauty of Bath, marked Wodehouse's first collaboration with Jerome Kern; it opened on 19 March 1906 with Hicks in one of the starring roles. In the years that followed, Wodehouse and Hicks enjoyed a close friendship. Hicks sold his car to the author in November 1906, which led to one memorable misadventure when, on his first drive, Wodehouse crashed into a hedge near Emsworth, after which he clambered out of the car and boarded the next train to London. "He never went up to pick up the car, and he never drove again" (Jasen, p. 39). Wodehouse spent the following Christmas with Hicks and his wife, and when Hicks left the Aldwych to establish his own theatre, Wodehouse went with him as chief lyricist. Love Among the Chickens introduces Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge (pronounced "Yewkridge"), a charismatic opportunist who in the 60 years that followed became Wodehouse's longest-running character. The novel is one of Wodehouse's scarcest first editions. Provenance: from the collection of the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021), with his posthumous bookplate. READ MORE Octavo. Original green cloth printed in green, orange, and black, expertly rebacked with the original spine laid down. Housed in a custom quarter green morocco folding box by the Chelsea Bindery. Frontispiece, 3 plates by H. M. Brock. Cloth rubbed, small spots of wear to spine and extremities, contents slightly foxed but clean. A very good copy. McIlvaine A7a. David A. Jasen, P. G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master, 1974.

A novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in 1906, 'Love Among the Chickens' marks the author's first attempt at a continuous story that involves the young and impecunious writer Jeremy Garnet who is persuaded by his friend Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge to assist at an upstart chicken farm.