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I like P.G. Wodehouse's stories; I'm quite a bit less impressed with his activities during World War 2. Wodehouse was in France when the Germans invaded in 194

I like P.G. Wodehouse's stories; I'm quite a bit less impressed with his activities during World War 2. Wodehouse was in France when the Germans invaded in 1940. He was interned as an enemy alien by the Nazis for a year. The Germans were able to persuade him to make some light-hearted radio broadcasts intended for American (but not British) consumption, in exchange for his release from internment. Many Britons (including A.A. Milne) never forgave him for this, though Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell defended him. After the War, Wodehouse found that he could not live in England and moved to the U.S., where he became a citizen in 1955.

yters 19y ago
Do you mean he made Nazi propaganda?
- rglovejoy 19y ago
  No, that would have been Lord Haw Haw and Ezra Pound who made propaganda broadcasts for the fascists. It wasn't as though Wodehouse had shaken hands with Hitler. He merely talked about what his internment was like, and he only made about five broadcasts. Even so, I think he was incredibly naïve of him to do this, given that by 1940, the Germans hadn't simply crossed the line into uncivilized conduct, they had gleefully flown over it with flags raised and fireworks shooting.
  - yters 19y ago
    Ah, you're saying he's a Hanoi Jane. I did not realize that about Ezra Pound. Now I see why people like GK Chesterton and CS Lewis disliked TS Elliot (protege of Pound) so much.
    - rglovejoy 19y ago
      No, I didn't say that at all.
      - yters 19y ago
        I thought you meant he was hated by the Brits because he misrepresented the Nazis and how they treated their POWs, like Jane Fonda did with the American POWs. However, I just read pg's link and now understand what you were saying.
pg 19y ago
You should just link directly to the Wikipedia article you paraphrased: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse Though you do seem to have invented one part: that the broadcasts were in exchange for his release. As usual, Wikipedia is not the last word in accuracy in such matters. Most of the British literary world seems to have been on his side. The leader of the opposition was not A. A. Milne, but a now-forgotten journalist (I've literally forgotten his name) who made a crusade of it as a form of proto-linkbait. And Wodehouse hadn't lived in England before the war, either. He moved to the US in his twenties.

yters 19y ago

Do you mean he made Nazi propaganda?

rglovejoy 19y ago
No, that would have been Lord Haw Haw and Ezra Pound who made propaganda broadcasts for the fascists. It wasn't as though Wodehouse had shaken hands with Hitler. He merely talked about what his internment was like, and he only made about five broadcasts. Even so, I think he was incredibly naïve of him to do this, given that by 1940, the Germans hadn't simply crossed the line into uncivilized conduct, they had gleefully flown over it with flags raised and fireworks shooting.
- yters 19y ago
  Ah, you're saying he's a Hanoi Jane. I did not realize that about Ezra Pound. Now I see why people like GK Chesterton and CS Lewis disliked TS Elliot (protege of Pound) so much.
  - rglovejoy 19y ago
    No, I didn't say that at all.
    - yters 19y ago
      I thought you meant he was hated by the Brits because he misrepresented the Nazis and how they treated their POWs, like Jane Fonda did with the American POWs. However, I just read pg's link and now understand what you were saying.

pg 19y ago

You should just link directly to the Wikipedia article you paraphrased: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse Though you do seem to have invented one part: that the broadcasts were in exchange for his release. As usual, Wikipedia is not the last word in accuracy in such matters. Most of the British literary world seems to have been on his side. The leader of the opposition was not A. A. Milne, but a now-forgotten journalist (I've literally forgotten his name) who made a crusade of it as a form of proto-linkbait. And Wodehouse hadn't lived in England before the war, either. He moved to the US in his twenties.