SIR PELHAM GRENVILLE WODEHOUSE was born on October 16, 1881, the third son of British magistrate Henry Ernest Wodehouse. Young Wodehouse was not fond of his given name and shortened it to "P.G." in his written works, answering to the nickname "Plum" amongst his friends and family. Educated and Dulwich College, Wodehouse began a career as a banker - a career he actively loathed - before turning to writing. His earliest stories were based on his life as a student and were often serialized to great success, but it wasn't until he turned full-time to comic fiction that his career took off. His stable of literary characters included the sly, smooth Psmith, the charming and affable "Uncle Fred" Ickenham, Lord Emsworth, Pongo Twistleton and the rest of the habitués of Blandings Castle (the plot-lines of which often involved very large pigs), Madeleine Bassett, Bingo Little, Catsmeat Potter-Purbright, Mr. Mulliner and many, many others, none more beloved than the foppish gentleman of leisure Bertie Wooster and his unflappable and brainy manservant Jeeves. In addition to his literary fiction, Wodehouse was also a contributor to or writer of both plays and musicals, for which he provided both dialogue and lyrics, working with such Broadway luminaries as Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern. "In the early 30's, Wodehouse fled England for France to avoid burdensome British taxes and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. Released after a one-year's imprisonment, Wodehouse was forced to remain in Germany and was persuaded by his captors to make radio broadcasts - innocuous and comical, he believed - for the German government. These broadcasts were widely viewed in England as traitorous and after the war had ended, Wodehouse never returned to his native land, living forever as an exile. Wodehouse and his wife lived in New York taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York, leaving behind an astonishing ninety books, forty plays and over two hundred short stories.