P. G. Wodehouse

WODEHOUSE, P. G. (1881-1975). The Prince and Betty. New York: W. J. Watt and Company, 1912.

First edition of an early Wodehouse work in the rare dust-jacket. First serialized in the Strand Magazine from February to April 1912, this US edition precedes the UK edition by three months. The illustrator, Will Grefé, first started working at an engraving company at the age of 15 before moving to New York to study at the Art Students League. He would later go on to work for such notable magazines as Life, Puck, McClure’s, Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post. It was most likely during assignment at the latter that Grefé encountered Wodehouse who wrote several short stories and essays for the serial. McIlvaine A15a.

Octavo. Title with two printed portraits and decorative cherub, half-tone frontispiece and four plates by Will Grefé. Original black cloth, spine and upper cover decorated in gilt, two colour-printed oval portraits on upper cover within decorative gilt frames (two corners just bumped, spine ends lightly bruised); original pictorial dust-jacket illustrated by Grefé and priced at 1²⁵ (somewhat soiled, a few small tears or chips, chip to head of spine affecting first word of title).