Wodehouse's artistic mechanism was set in motion by the need to exclude unpleasantness. He was a quiet, lonely boy and became a quiet, lonely man who escaped into joy at his desk. By all accounts, he was a friendly and obliging fellow; but no less an admirer than Evelyn Waugh described him privately as the dullest man he ever met. And socially he was famous for fleeing the kind of jolly scenes he wrote about to walk his dog. Generations of visitors were astounded that this taciturn blob could have produced usch streams of liveliness. In true Victorian fashion, Wodehouse had grown a second soul back in his workshop, while the first one remained as shy and unformed as a bank clerk's.
(by Wilfred Sheed, from the Introduction to Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)
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