The woods are full of ambitious candleholders, but none of them has yet come within scorching distance of the Old Master. One person who was privileged to inhabit the world of Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was the late New York publisher and collector James H. Heineman. His collection of Wodehouse material comprises some 2,000 volumes, autograph manuscripts and typescripts, letters, original artwork illustrating the novels and short stories by James Montgomery Flagg, Ronald Searle and Rex Whistler amongst others, theatrical memorabilia, and even a small but revealing collection of material documenting the controversial wartime broadcasts from Berlin. This was not Heineman's first Wodehouse collection. However, my Wodehouse books had vanished.
Pure enjoyment is the main thing.
The geniality Wodehouse inspires is especially evident among collectors. One cannot be absorbed in Wodehouse without being influenced by his characters' examples of style, charm, decency and pluck. Although many of the items in the collection were included in the Wodehouse centenary exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1981, the full collection has never before been available for perusal. Sotheby's offers collectors a chance to enter the world of Lord Emsworth and Blandings Castle, Mr. Mulliner and the Angler's Rest, Bertie Wooster and the Drones Club, and, of course, the inimitable Jeeves.