The VANITY FAIR article posted on the right was penned by P.G. Wodehouse (1904 – 1975) and it concerned a unique sort of novelist that had surfaced in 1919 – and has yet to decamp. Wodehouse divided the novelizing classes into two distinct groups:
“…the ordinary novelist, the straightforward, horny-handed dealer in narrative, who is perfectly contented to turn out two books a year, on the understanding – a gentleman’s agreement between himself and his public – that he reserves movie rights and is allowed an occasional photograph in the papers..”
The offending scribes Wodehouse called “Super-Novelists”; writers who are approached by their publishers and offered substantial checks for their views on a number of subjects that stand far outside their realm of comprehension. Wodehouse named two “Super-Novelists” who, he believed, fit this description and dominated his era: H.G. Wells (1866 – 1946) and Arnold Bennett (1867 – 1931).
