The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-10
Man bout

: By George Tucker

NEW YORK-July 9-Mr. Nelson
Doubleday, head of the publishing
house of Doubleday, Doran & Co.,
will be very grateful if the Ger
mans will forward him some word
Of two Of his ~best-selling authors.
The subjugation Of the lowlands
and of France mas swallowed up
P. G. Wodehouse and w. Somerset
Vaughan.
The company hasn't had a word
from Wodehouse since early IN
May. At that time he wrote in to
say that he had completed a new
book of short stories and was be-
ginning a new novel, as yet un'
titled. Shortly thereafter, while en-
pertaining friends at tea in his
home, LIE Tourquet, a detachment
Of motorized Nazi infantry swept
off the highway and into the Wode-
house yard, and the famous humor-
list, who once carried half a mil
lion dollars away from Hollywood
for writing nothing at all, W a S
made a prisoned. He still is in
German hands.
Whatever his thoughts at
the moment-and at his capture
he suggested that this might give
me the material for a serious nov
el"-he would no doubt be pleas
ed to know that a free Wode-
house" campaign has sprung up
in New York. Citizens are writing
in and telephoning their plans to
the Doubleday office. A mass meet
ing is now planned to be held at
Madison Square Garden, and a re.
quest will be sent to the German
government, petitioning the release
of this famous creator of "Jeeves."
As for w. Somerset Vaughan,
he has disappeared into the NAV
Of the Nazi machine. This is an
embarrassing moment for the au-
thor to disappear. He has a new
book of short stories, The Mix
ture as Before" coming out next
week. It is the last collection OF
short stories he ever intends to
write, or SO he has informed MI.
Doubleday. Why? There are only
so many stories in a man, he ex-
plains. No one, I believe, C a n
create a character from pure OBJ
%servation; if it is to have life it
must be at least in some degree
a representative of himself. / do
not believe Shakespeare could
have begotten Hamlet, Brutus and
1ago if he had not been himself
Iago, Brutus, and Hamlet :. =.
/ have now written between eighty
and ninety stories; I shall not
write any more"
1t is not surprising that Maugh-
am was in Paris when the Ger
mans came. He was educated in
France, lived there as a man and
as a child, and speaks the Ian
guage fuently-but not too fluent
ly. He once pointed out that he
had no desire to speak French as
a native. when you find an
Englishman who speaks F r n C h
hawlessly," he said, 'be on your
guard; he is probably a card
shark"
His decision to write no more
short stories isn't surprising. Not
long ago he suggested that per-
haps his days were numbered. He
is now go, and, says he, reading
the obituary columns Of The
Times tells me that a lot of peo-
pie die between the ages of IS and
co." So he sat down and wrote
a book called "The Summing Up"
which was an appraisal of his own
sense of values-of the things that
meant most to him. Writing such
a summary, which, by his own
admission, sort of tied up his ca
reer in a neat, serviceable little
package, made him feel better. Aft
er all, he is the author of about
70 plays, ten novels, eight books of
short stories, and three books of
essays and six books on travel. |
This is quite a lot of work for one
man to do.