Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Wodehouse, P.G.. THE INTRUSION OF JIMMY. W. J. Watt & Company, New York, 1910.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Signed first printing of the first Wodehouse novel to be published in the US before the UK, in striking pictorial cloth. A version of this novel, a romantic comedy of theatre and crime, first appeared in shorter form as "The Gem Collector" in Ainslee's Magazine; this true first edition was subsequently issued in 1910, followed later that same year in the UK as A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE. An attractive copy of this early Wodehouse. 7.25'' x 5''. Original gilt-lettered olive-green and yellow pictorial cloth, with circular pictorial paste-on. 314 pages. Inscribed by Wodehouse "with the author's compliments / P.G. Wodehouse" on front free endpaper. Color lithographed frontispiece and four black and white plates. Cloth a bit worn. Spine sunned and titles dulled. Front hinge starting, occasional faint foxing.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
P. G. Wodehouse. The Intrusion of Jimmy. W J Watt, New York, 1910.
Price: US$4197.72 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: An uncommon, signed copy of P G Wodehouse's novel 'The Intrusion of Jimmy'. Signed to Estelle and Ivy, from 'Plum'. Scarce with the author's signing of the personal name 'Plum' instead of 'P.G Wodehouse'. The presentation inscription reads 'To Estelle and Ivy, from Plum. May 16. 1910'. An entry in Wodehouse's second notebook, entry 163 reads 'At tea in Jersey (Aug 1905) Ivy Bishop gave me a bun with jam on it & said "The raspberry jam doesn't go right through." "Ah, me cheild," I said, "in all the affairs of life you will find that the r. jam never goes right through."' Loosely inserted is an accompanying letter where Norman Murphy, the founder of the British branch of the international P.G Wodehouse Society, has written to one Dr Davies regarding this provenance. The letter is dated 2007.With the frontispiece and four plates.Collated, tear with loss to pages 7/8.The true first edition of this novel. The U.S edition preceded the U.K printing by six months. The U.K printing was under the name 'A Gentleman of Leisure'.This novel follows a basic plot Wodehouse issued in his novella 'The Gem Collector' for Ainslee's Magazine. It follows bachelor Jimmy Pitt who has fallen in love on a transatlantic liner. He befriends a small time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet with his friend Arthur Mifflin. Pitt then ends up in England, where he is on a quest to find his love from his previous transatlantic journey. The novel has been regarded as a typical Wodehousean romantic story set at the stately Dreever Castle.A fascinating association copy of this popular P.G Wodehouse novel. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Externally, sound. Bumping to the head and tail of spine. Small hole to the bottom of front joint. Fading to the spine. Hinge is tender. Front endpaper is detached but present. Author's inscription to the recto of front endpaper. Tear with loss to pages 7/8. Internally, generally firmly bound. Pages are generally bright. Tidemarks visible to the bottom of pages which are slightly cockled. Good
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$7000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 314 pages with color lithographic frontispiece and 4 black and white illustrations by Will Grefé. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's pictorial black cloth stamped in grey and yellow, lettered in gilt, with applied chromolithographic illustration housed in custom cloth clamshell box. Inscribed in bold hand by author. (McIlvaine A13a) First edition. A Gentleman of Leisure is a novel by P G Wodehouse. The basic plot first appeared in a novella, The Gem Collector, in the December 1909 issue of Ainslee's Magazine. It was substantially revised and expanded for publication as a book under the title The Intrusion of Jimmy by Tit-Bits between 11 June and 10 September before being published as A Gentleman of Leisure by Alston Rivers Ltd, London, on 15 November 1910. There are minor textual differences between the American and British editions of the book. A Gentleman of Leisure was adapted for the stage in 1911 and has twice been filmed, in 1915 and 1923. Condition: Inscribed in bold hand by author: "To Miss Margaret Fraser with the author's compliments / P.G. Wodehouse / May 16, 1910." Light rubbing, vertical crease along spine top outside corner of upper cover bumped. Clamshell enclosure lightly soiled and faded else very good to fine in a very good enclosure.
Seller: The Book Collector, Inc. ABAA, ILAB, Fort Worth, TX, U.S.A.