The Society’s Response to Offers of Bequests or Donations of Wodehouse Collections

On a number of occasions, The Society has been contacted by members, or the families of late members, hoping that the Society will welcome their treasured Wodehouse collections.

Unfortunately, the Society has no infrastructure to deal with quantities of books, whether they are well-loved reading copies or treasured first editions. We have no premises where we can store or display them, and our volunteers on the Committee have little time to do anything creative with them for the benefit of other members.

We have, however, come to recognise that there may be circumstances in which the Society would be willing to receive certain Wodehouse material, but we must emphasise that it could only relate to items of exceptional interest, which take up no more than a modest amount of space. This may include a collection of letters or other manuscript material, books inscribed by Wodehouse, sheet music, early theatre programmes and playscripts, and individual copies of historic magazines in which Wodehouse stories or essays appeared. It is the Society’s hope that our physical ownership of such items might be temporary, if arrangements can be made with an appropriate institution to provide easier access for the items to be researched. The ongoing legal ownership of such items would be considered separately.

You may be aware the Society’s website has a page (here) with many ideas on how best to pass on Wodehouse collections of various quality, including advice on what to do if you suspect some of the books may have a curiosity value or indeed a substantial market value. It also lists a few circumstances in which we would be willing to try to arrange a discussion with one of our members who has experience in such matters.

If you find that friends and family members don’t want the books, please remember that a specialist charity bookshop will often welcome gifts of Wodehouse books with open arms, because they usually fly right out of the door into the arms of rejoicing Wodehouse fans - and that surely would be one of the very best possible homes for them. Or maybe enquire at community book sellers, or even school libraries, where Wodehouse could be introduced to new readers and younger generations.

March 2021