Flappers at Sea

Flappers at Sea

Dec 2, 2011 | Fashion & Design, Illustrated Books

Sea Legs by Oliver Herford (1931).

This utterly charming little book was placed on my desk by a colleague who knows about my secret desire to be a flapper. Published in 1931 after originally appearing in the periodical The Delineator, Sea Legs was written by the American poet and illustrator Oliver Herford (1863–1935), a prolific magazine contributor best remembered for his humorous books The Rubíáyát of a Persian Kitten  and The Little Book of Bores. He was also famed for his bon mots, and Google reveals that almost everyone believes he was described as “the American Oscar Wilde”, though no one seems to know by whom (and, even if true, he wasn’t the only one – Mark Twain was also saddled with the title). Nevertheless, he was a truly talented humorist and illustrator, with The New York Sun arguing that “There is no one else quite as funny as he is and probably never will be”.

Sea Legs is a satirical alphabet book, relating the delights and annoyances of voyages in the era when traveling between Europe and North America meant spending at least a week at sea, a social event with the opportunity to become intimate, for better or worse, with fellow passengers and crew. Herford’s illustrations of flappers caught in a myriad of titillating shipboard situations are a delight. I’ve included a good selection below, and strongly encourage you to explore the above links to Persian Kitten and Book of Bores. A rare title, this copy includes the dust jacket and a very attractive folding case that reproduces the cover image (see the final picture).

D’s the Deck-steward–

With careful financing

He will give you a chair

Where the view is entrancing.

E’s the Electrical Horse

in the Gym.

It won’t take you far

but ’twill keep you in trim.

F is the flapper

Who walks the first day

By her Lone, but tomorrow

It won’t be that way.

G’s for the Gulls

I wish they’d explain

How they eat such a lot

and their figures retain.

N is the Newly-Weds?

Nay, guess again,

His wife’s in Seattle,

her hubby’s in Maine.

O is the Ocean

a watery waste

With a nauseous motion

and terrible taste.

P is the Pet on his

mistress’s knee

Oh who wouldn’t

envy a Puppy

at sea!

Se is for Sea Legs,

but if you ask me

The way I should spell

it is S double E.

U’s that old Ulster

don’t talk of not keeping it

If you summer in Europe

You’ll sleep, live and

eat in it.

V is the Vamp, who

believes that if she

Should vamp Daddy Neptune

he’d give up the sea.

A Significant P. G. Wodehouse Letter on his Controversial Wartime Broadcasts

A Significant P. G. Wodehouse Letter on his Controversial Wartime Broadcasts

Aug 26, 2011 | Literature

The Times is today featuring an article on P. G. Wodehouse’s  radio broadcasts from Berlin during the Second World War, based on information in newly released MI5 files. We currently have in stock an important letter by Wodehouse, one that shines light on the difficulty he faced in trying to restore his reputation following the war.

P. G. Wodehouse (1904).

P. G. Wodehouse (1904).

At the beginning of the war Wodehouse was an international celebrity best known for his comedic “Jeeves” novels. He and his wife were living in France and, unable to escape the German advance, he was interned along with all other Englishmen in the country. He was soon released, partly due to his age, but also because of his popularity in America, which was still a neutral country that Germany hoped to avoid provoking. It was for this reason that the Germans requested he make a series of humorous broadcasts about his internment for the American public. He complied and, though the material contained nothing anti-British or sympathetic to the Nazis, Wodehouse was roundly reviled and placed under serious investigation headed by a Major E. J. P. Cussen.

Wodehouse was still haunted by this years later. In the spring of 1953 he was in New York finishing a volume of memoirs and proposed to include transcripts of his Berlin talks in order to demonstrate their  innocence. Our letter reveals that his investigator Major Cussen read the book at draft stage and confronted the publisher with the fact that Wodehouse had not supplied accurate transcripts of the original broadcasts. Wodehouse floundered to explain this to his editor, writing that, “I added funny material whenever I saw the opportunity… You see what I mean? The stuff is the same, but I added comic material… I suppose it is safest to be absolutely accurate, though it does seem a pity to cut out funny stuff.”

Though he was trying to restore his reputation by publishing the full texts of the broadcasts, Wodehouse was unable to resist adding additional comedic touches that jeopardized the integrity of the project. Ironically, it was this desire to amuse and entertain that not only created his celebrity and influenced his decision to make the broadcasts in the first place, but finally damaged his attempts to rehabilitate his reputation.

Letter from P. G. Wodehouse

Letter from P. G. Wodehouse to his editor discussing his broadcasts from Germany during the Second World War.