Смит, журналист: Роман П. Г. Вудхауса

1915 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

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. The story was also incorporated into the US version of The Prince and Betty, published by W. J. Watt and Co., New York, on 14 February 1912. This combined the magazine versions of The Prince and Betty and Psmith, Journalist, and is a very different book from that published as The Prince and Betty in the UK. to fetch Dude Dawson, Psmith and Windsor repair through a hatch to the roof with the rent collector, holding out there until gang warfare draws their attackers away. They leave a man guarding the skylight, but Psmith finds a ladder, and they cross it to the next building and escape. Windsor got the rent collector to divulge a name, that of Stewart Waring, a candidate for city Alderman and former Commissioner of Buildings. After a pick pocket nearly makes off with their signed proof of Waring's involvement, Psmith posts it back to the paper. Next day at the office, Brady is forced to leave their service to begin training for a fight, and Psmith hears that Windsor has been arrested for hitting a policeman, who was trying to arrest him as part of a raid on a gambling den. Psmith relates a similar experience, and they realise the gang has used the police to get them out of the way while they search for the paper. With Brady away training and Windsor in prison for a month, Psmith decides it is time to call in a favour from Bat Jarvis. He takes Mike, returned from his match, to visit the cat lover. Pretending Mike is an English cat expert, they win Jarvis round, and he and his henchman Long Otto stand guard on the office the following day. Repetto and two other Three Pointers burst in, and are chased off with a warning from Jarvis to leave Cosy Moments alone. Later, Francis Parker appears again, and persuades Psmith to send Jarvis away so they can talk; a message arrives from Windsor asking Psmith to come help him, and Psmith jumps into a taxi, only to find himself kidnapped at gunpoint by Parker. They drive out into the country, but get a flat tyre; while it is being fixed, Kid Brady comes along, out jogging, and distracts Parker long enough for Psmith to overpower him and escape. Next day, Parker invites Psmith to a meeting with Waring, but Psmith refuses, insisting the great man come to him. He also receives a telegram from Wilberfloss the editor, saying he will return the following day. Wilberfloss arrives with the old contributors, enraged at the changes in the paper; he threatens to contact the owner, but Psmith reveals that he himself owns the paper, having bought it a month previously. Waring appears, and threatens Psmith, but is forced to give him $5,000 to improve the tenements, plus three to replace his hat; Psmith restores Wilberfloss and the staff of Cosy Moments to their positions, Billy Windsor having been offered his previous job at the paper back at a fine salary. Some months later, back in rainy Cambridge, Psmith hears that Waring lost his election, and that Kid Brady has won his chance at a title fight, while Mr Wilberfloss has regained the paper's old subscribers.

The book published in the US in February 1912 under the title The Prince and Betty merges the plot of the version which had appeared a month earlier in Ainslee's magazine with the plot of Psmith, Journalist (which at that date had only appeared in The Captain magazine). The first eleven chapters of the book follow the plot of the magazine version, with John Maude and Betty Silver meeting and falling out in Mervo. From chapter twelve onwards the story mirrors Psmith, Journalist, with some changes. Psmith becomes Rupert Smith, a Harvard alumnus (Psmith's first name is Rupert in Mike and Psmith in the City; it is not mentioned in Psmith, Journalist, and has changed to Ronald for his next appearance), although he retains Psmith's characteristic monocle, mode of speech and habit of referring to all and sundry as "Comrade". Smith is acting editor of the magazine, here renamed Peaceful Moments, edited by a Mr Renshaw and owned by Mr Benjamin Scobell. John Maude is an old friend of Smith; the paper hires Betty as secretary, and their love hate relationship carries on from the first part of the story. The affairs of boxer Kid Brady, boosted by Smith, gangster Bat Jarvis, befriended by Betty, and the tenement scandal, taken up by Smith at Betty's instigation, are intermingled with the romance of Maude and Betty. The two books were combined and rewritten once more, and released as a serial under the title A Prince for Hire in a periodical called The Illustrated Love Magazine in 1931. The parts were reassembled and published in book form by Galahad Books in 2003.

In The Captain magazine, the story was illustrated by T. M. R. Whitwell. The first UK edition of the novel included twelve full page illustrations by Whitwell. One of the earliest known uses in print of the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" appeared in Psmith, Journalist. The exact phrase used in the book is "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary". It appeared in the fourth part of the serial, published in January 1910. A similar phrase, "Elementary, my dear fellow, quite elementary", was used in the previous Psmith novel, Psmith in the City.