Wodehouse, P.G.
The Luck Stone
Chums, An Illustrated Paper for Boys
London, etc: Cassell and Company, Limited, September 16, 1908-September 8, 1909. Vol. XVII, no's. 836-887. 4to. iv, 1044, (4) pp. Featuring the complete serialization of "The Luck Stone," written by Wodehouse under the pseudonym Basil Windham. Illustrated with color frontispiece and nine plates. Original pictorial red cloth-covered boards, scattered soiling, spine slightly faded, stamped in gilt and in black; all edges trimmed; title-page and index moderately worn and creased, text lightly toned, closed tear at fore edge of pp. 983/984, rear hinge reinforced, McIlvaine D80.1-18.
Together with:
The Luck Stone
(London): Galahad Books, 1997. First and limited edition, #122 of 250 copies. Original red cloth-covered boards, stamped in gilt; all edges trimmed. Not in McIlvaine. The complete serialization of Wodehouse's school story "The Luck Stone." First published in book form 88 years later by Galahad Books in a limited edition of 276 copies.
As David A. Jasen explains in "P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master", "The Luck Stone" was a complete departure for Wodehouse, and the first school story based completely on his imagination and not personal experience. It would be the only story contributed to Chums and the only collaboration between him and his friend William Townend. Quoting Richard Usborne about the formation of "The Luck Stone" in "Wodehouse at Work": "He had read Chums for years, and knew its needs. It was opencast mining for him to slice out the story off the top of his brain...He had shown, in breezy asides throughout his school novels...and elsewhere, that he had read acres of public-school bilfe-fiction, had enjoyed it all and knew all the tricks of it. "The Luck Stone" shows that he he culd now imitate it, too, at the rustle of a cheque." (p. 43, Jasen, P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master).