P.G. Wodehouse started out life in the early 1880s as an Englishman, so most of his great characters and settings are outwardly English

P.G. Wodehouse Day is February 1.

Bob Greene Greene: The great American author gave joy to millions of people with his books.

Greene: His novels ignore real life altogether.

He says the delight is not in novelty but in the perfection of the humor and the writing, which never gets old.

Greene says Wodehousians think The Code of the Woosters is the best starter.

P.G. Wodehouse was an English major in college but had never heard of him until he came to Claremont in the 1970s.

Leo Strauss introduced him to the great man, years after he graduated from Yale, years later.

He said Strauss told him that two men got him through World War II: Churchill and W.Wodehouse.

He had a prolific career writing for the theater including libretto and lyrics for nearly 40 musical comedies.

American Wodehousians celebrate P.G. Wodehouse Day every December 16, the date on which he became a U.S. citizen in 1955.