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Mike Jackson is a recurring fictional character in the early novels by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a good friend of Psmith. He appears in all the Psmith books.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2009) |
Mike Jackson is a recurring fictional character in the early novels by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a good friend of Psmith. He appears in all the Psmith books.
Mike is a solid, reliable character with a strong sense of fair play, but an appetite for excitement and a stubbornness that often leads him into trouble. He is a keen and talented cricketer, and comes from a cricketing family (his elder brothers have all distinguished themselves), and as we follow Mike's life he himself achieves considerable cricketing success. However, as Wodehouse's writing developed away from the school stories of his early period, cricket becomes a less important aspect of the tales, as does Mike himself.
Mike Jackson appears in five novel-length works, all of which appeared as magazine serials before being published in book form.
| Original serial appearance | Appearances in book form | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | Magazine | Title | |
| April–September 1907 | The Captain | "Jackson Junior" | "Jackson Junior" forms the first half of the novel Mike (1909). "Jackson Junior" was later republished separately as Mike at Wrykyn (1953). [1] |
| April–September 1908 | The Captain | "The Lost Lambs" | "The Lost Lambs" forms the second half of the novel Mike (1909). "The Lost Lambs" was later republished separately as: |
| October 1908-March 1909 | The Captain | "The New Fold" | Psmith in the City (1910) |
| October 1909-March 1910 | The Captain | "Psmith, Journalist" | Psmith, Journalist (1915) * Note that parts of this serialised story were rewritten and incorporated into a novel for an American audience, published in the US as The Prince and Betty (1912). This rewritten story does not feature Mike Jackson or Psmith. |
| February–March, 1923 | The Saturday Evening Post | "Leave It to Psmith" | Leave It to Psmith (1923) * Note that the ending of this serialized story was rewritten for book publication, and differs significantly from the magazine version. |
In his first appearance ("Jackson Junior", later retitled Mike at Wrykyn) Mike is the sole focus of the story. Mike at Wrykyn starts with Mike heading off to prestigious Wrykyn school, where all his brothers had attended and one, Bob, is still an important figure, and a fixture in the school cricket team. Mike goes through many adventures, interspersed with cricket, during his first year at the school.
In "The Lost Lambs" (later known as Mike and Psmith or Enter Psmith), Mike is withdrawn from Wrykyn by his father after a poor academic performance, and must attend the less successful Sedleigh, much to his disgust. It is there, however, that he meets the charismatic Rupert Psmith, and the two become fast friends.
In "The New Fold" (later published as Psmith in the City ), family financial troubles mean Mike cannot go to Cambridge as he had hoped, and must instead get a job at the (fictitious) New Asiatic Bank. Once there, however, he finds his friend Psmith also enrolled in the company, making his time there much more pleasurable.
In Psmith, Journalist , Mike, now enjoying success as a Cambridge cricketer, travels to the United States for a cricket tour. His friend Psmith comes along with him, and embroils the two in a dangerous adventure; by now, however, Mike has become a minor character, in the shadow of voluble Psmith.
In Leave It to Psmith , Mike only appears briefly early on; he is married to Phyllis, stepdaughter of Joseph Keeble, who is in turn married to Lord Emsworth's sister Lady Constance Keeble. Psmith falls for Phyllis' friend Eve Halliday, and the two strive to help out their impoverished friends.
Mike's family appear in the early stories, and we learn that he has four brothers, one of them (Bob, three years older than Mike) in the Wrykyn cricket team, the other three (Joe, Reggie and Frank) all county players. He also has four younger sisters, Marjory (a year Mike's junior), Phyllis, Ella, and Gladys Maud Evangeline (the baby), and an Uncle John. His kindly father, who has business interests in the Argentine, employs a cricket pro, a loyal man named Saunders, to train his boys during the holidays. Their house is at Crofton, in Shropshire, where they keep a bulldog named John, Mike's inseparable companion during the holidays.
Mike's early schooling was at a private school named "King-Hall's", at Emsworth in Hampshire; he made seven centuries there in his last year, including one knock of 123. At the age of fifteen, a place is found for him at Wrykyn, where his brothers before him had attended.
His huge self-confidence and skill in batting bring him much success at Wrykyn, and his noble character makes him many friends. After three happy years there, as he is on the verge of taking over the captaincy of the cricket team, he is forced, thanks to poor academic work, to leave Wrykyn. He goes to Sedleigh, a lesser school which he resents, but it is there that he meets Psmith, with whom he would form a lasting friendship.
His first months at Sedleigh demonstrate his obstinate nature; unable to play for Wrykyn, he refuses to play for a lesser school, missing much cricket, although he does manage a few games for a local village side. Generally good-natured, Mike has a sharp temper at times, especially when he sees some injustice done to himself or a friend; he is invariably generous and helpful to friends in need. He also gets on well with dogs.
After Sedleigh, Mike learns that his father's finances have taken a bit of a tumble, and rather than go to Cambridge, he will have to go to work at the New Asiatic Bank. He spends several months there, despite an early run-in with his employer John Bickersdyke, made more comfortable by the presence of Psmith on the scene, and eventually succumbs to the lure of sunshine and cricket, leaving his job to join his brother Joe in a match at Lord's. Psmith's father Mr Smith, seeing Mike's talent, decides to hire him as estate manager, paying for him to study at Cambridge first.
During his first year there he makes a century against Oxford, and in the summer break he joins an M.C.C. team on a tour of America
After university, Mike takes up his job with Psmith's father, and marries Phyllis. Unfortunately, old man Smith dies, leaving nothing but debts, and the people who buy his property have someone else to manage the estate, leaving Mike in difficulty. He finds temporary work as a schoolmaster, and has offered a farming business in Lincolnshire, but requires financial help from Joe Keeble.
In a preface to the 1953 version of Mike and Psmith, Wodehouse informs us that Mike would go on to become a prosperous farmer.
Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth, home to many of his family and the setting for numerous tales and adventures. The stories were written between 1915 and 1975.
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl Emsworth, commonly known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle series of stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family. Longing for nothing more than to talk to his prize pig, Empress of Blandings, or potter peacefully in the idyllic gardens of Blandings Castle, he must frequently face the unpleasant reality of his domineering sisters and familial duties.
Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London. It was serialised in The Pall Mall Magazine (UK) between March and August 1929 and in Collier's (US) from 6 April to 22 June 1929.
Rupert J. Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called the Efficient Baxter, he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs. He invariably wears his rimless spectacles, suspects everyone of being an impostor, and is, as his epithet suggests, extremely efficient.
The Honourable Frederick Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. A member of the Drones Club affectionately known as "Freddie", he is the second son of Lord Emsworth, and a somewhat simple-minded youth who brings his father nothing but trouble.
Leave It to Psmith is a comic novel by English author P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 30 November 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, London, England, and in the United States on 14 March 1924 by George H. Doran, New York. It had previously been serialised, in the Saturday Evening Post in the US between 3 February and 24 March 1923, and in the Grand Magazine in the UK between April and December that year; the ending of this magazine version was rewritten for the book form.
Rupert Psmith is a recurring fictional character in several novels by British author P. G. Wodehouse, being one of Wodehouse's best-loved characters.
Mike is a school story by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 15 September 1909 by Adam & Charles Black, London. The story first appeared in the magazine The Captain, in two separate parts that were collected together in the original version of the book; the first part, originally called Jackson Junior, was republished in 1953 under the title Mike at Wrykyn, while the second half, called The Lost Lambs in its serialised version, was released as Enter Psmith in 1935 and then as Mike and Psmith in 1953. Although Mike was one of Wodehouse's earlier books, Wodehouse thought it his best work.
Psmith in the City is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 23 September 1910 by Adam & Charles Black, London. The story was originally released as a serial in The Captain magazine, between October 1908 and March 1909, under the title The New Fold.
Psmith, Journalist is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first released in the United Kingdom as a serial in The Captain magazine between October 1909 and February 1910, and published in book form in the UK on 29 September 1915, by Adam & Charles Black, London, and, from imported sheets, by Macmillan, New York, later that year.
Service with a Smile is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 15 October 1961 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on 17 August 1962 by Herbert Jenkins, London. A condensed version of the story had previously been published in two parts in the Toronto Star Weekly, on 26 August and 2 September 1961.
A Pelican at Blandings is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 25 September 1969 by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 11 February 1970 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title No Nudes Is Good Nudes.
The following is a list of recurring or notable fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.
"Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the 6 October 1928 issue of Liberty and in the United Kingdom in the November 1928 The Strand. Part of the Blandings Castle canon, it features the absent-minded peer Lord Emsworth, and was included in the collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935), although the story takes place sometime between the events of Leave it to Psmith (1923) and Summer Lightning (1929). Wodehouse intended to write a sequel, set 8 years after the events of this story.
Lady Constance Keeble is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Lord Emsworth's most formidable sister, a strikingly handsome woman, with a fair, broad brow, and perfectly even white teeth. She has the carriage of an empress, and her large grey eyes are misleadingly genial.
Claude Cattermole "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a longtime school friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club. A West End actor known as "Claude Cattermole" on stage, he is known to his friends by the nickname "Catsmeat".
Tales of Wrykyn and Elsewhere is a collection of short stories by British writer P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 1 October 1997 by Porpoise Books, London, with illustrations by T. M. R. Whitwell. It contains previously uncollected work, most of the stories having first appeared in the schoolboy's magazines such as The Captain and Public School Magazine. It was reprinted by Penguin Random House under its Everyman's Library imprint in 2014.
Leave it to Psmith, subtitled "A comedy of youth, love and misadventure", is a 1930 comedy play by Ian Hay and P. G. Wodehouse, based on the latter's 1923 novel of the same title. It premiered in London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 29 September 1930.