A Few Quick Ones

A Few Quick Ones

First UK Edition
Author P.G. Wodehouse
Language English
Genre short stories
Published 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster in the US and 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins Ltd

A Few Quick Ones is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States on 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins, London.[1]

All the stories in the collection feature recurring Wodehouse characters and themes: four Drones Club members (two Freddie Widgeon and two Bingo Little), two golf stories (one with the Oldest Member and one without), two Mr Mulliner, one Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, and one Ukridge.

Contents

  1. "The Fat of the Land" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
  2. "Scratch Man" (Oldest Member golf)
    • US: Saturday Evening Post, 20 January 1940 (as "Tee for Two")
    • UK: Strand, September 1940 (as "Tee for Two")
  3. "The Right Approach" (Mr Mulliner)
  4. "Jeeves Makes an Omelette"
  5. "The Word in Season" (Drone Bingo Little)
    • UK: Punch, 21 August 1940
    • US: Harper's Bazaar, 15 September 1940
    • US: This Week, 18 May 1958 (as "Bingo Little's Wild Night Out")
  6. "Big Business" (Mr Mulliner)
    • US: Collier's, 13 December 1952 (without Mulliner framework)
    • UK: Lilliput, March/April 1953 (without Mulliner framework)
  7. "Leave It to Algy" (Drone Bingo Little)
  8. "Joy Bells for Walter" (A golf story without the Oldest Member)
    • US: This Week, 17 October 1956 (as "Keep Your Temper, Walter")
    • UK: John Bull, 16 February 1957 (as "Keep Your Temper, Walter")
  9. "A Tithe for Charity" (Ukridge)
    • US: Playboy, April 1955
  10. "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
    • First published in the 1949 omnibus Best of Wodehouse,[2] as "Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust"

The Ukridge story "A Tithe for Charity" did not appear in the original U.S. edition, which instead featured a 1958 "exclusive" pseudo-Drones story entitled "Unpleasantness at Kozy Kot" (actually a rewritten version[3] of the 1928 Jeeves story "Fixing It for Freddie" collected in Carry On, Jeeves). "Jeeves Makes an Omelette" was a rewritten version of the 1913 Reggie Pepper story "Doing Clarence a Bit of Good", which appeared in the UK collection My Man Jeeves.

See also

References and sources

References
  1. ↑ McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L.S. and Heineman, J.H. (1990) P.G. Wodehouse: A comprehensive bibliography and checklist. New York: James H. Heineman, pp. 93-94. ISBN 087008125X
  2. ↑ In the Omnibus it is preceded by a page headed "Introducing a new story"
  3. ↑ Reggie (2007-07-08). ""Wodehouse stories: Unpleasantness at Kosy Kot" (sic)". Blandings, a Companion to the Works of P. G. Wodehouse. Archived from the original on 2007-07-23.
Sources