Editing Jeeves (section)

== Inspiration ==
A valet called Jevons appears in Wodehouse's 1914 short story "Creatures of Impulse", and may have been an early prototype for Jeeves.<ref name=cawthorne169>Cawthorne (2013), p. 169.</ref> Like Jeeves, Jevons is described as the perfect valet.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.madameulalie.org/strand/Creatures_of_Impulse.html |title=Creatures of Impulse |last=Wodehouse |first=P. G. |date=October 1914 |website=Madame Eulalie |access-date=21 January 2018 |quote=What a treasure Jevons was! What a model of what a gentleman’s servant should be! Existence without Jevons would be unthinkable.}}</ref> "Creatures of Impulse" appeared in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'', and was not republished in any collection, though some parts went into the making of "[[The Crime Wave at Blandings]]".<ref>Usborne (2003), p. 82.</ref>

In his 1953 semi-autobiographical book written with [[Guy Bolton]], ''[[Bring on the Girls!]]'', Wodehouse suggested that the Jeeves character was inspired by an actual butler named Eugene Robinson whom Wodehouse employed for research purposes. Wodehouse described Robinson as a "walking ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''". However, Robinson worked at Wodehouse's house in Norfolk Street where Wodehouse did not live until 1927, long after Jeeves had been created.<ref name=cawthorne169 />

Wodehouse named his Jeeves after [[Percy Jeeves]] (1888–1916), a popular English cricketer for [[Warwickshire County Cricket Club|Warwickshire]]. Wodehouse witnessed Percy Jeeves bowling at [[Cheltenham Cricket Festival]] in 1913. Percy Jeeves was killed at the [[Battle of the Somme]] in July 1916, less than a year after the first appearance of the Wodehouse character who would make his name a household word.<ref name=Sarna>"The most invaluable nugget contained in the book [''Wodehouse at the Wicket'' by P. G. Wodehouse and Murray Hedgcock] traces the origin of the name Jeeves to Percy Jeeves, a Warwickshire professional cricketer known for his impeccable grooming, smart shirts and spotlessly clean flannels. Wodehouse probably saw him take a couple of smooth, effortless catches in a match between Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. The name, the immaculate appearance and silent efficiency stuck and the inimitable manservant appeared first in 1916, just weeks after the original Percy Jeeves died in the war in France." {{cite journal|author = Navtej Sarna |title = Of Lords, aunts and pigs |journal= The Hindu Literary Review| date = 3 June 2012}}</ref>

In a letter written in 1965, Wodehouse wrote that he had read [[Harry Leon Wilson]]'s ''Ruggles of Red Gap'' when it was first published as a magazine serial in 1914 and it influenced the creation of Jeeves.<ref>Thompson (1992), p. 121.</ref> ''Ruggles of Red Gap'' is a comedic novel about an English valet who is won by an American from an English earl in a poker game. In the letter, Wodehouse wrote, "I felt that an English valet would never have been so docile about being handed over to an American in payment of a poker debt. I thought he had missed the chap's dignity. I think it was then that the idea of Jeeves came into my mind."<ref>{{cite book | author-last= Murphy | author-first= N. T. P. | title= The P. G. Wodehouse Miscellany| pages=132–133 |publisher= The History Press |date= 2015 |location = Stroud, Gloucestershire | isbn=978-0750959643}}</ref>

The development of Jeeves and Bertie was influenced by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories, according to [[Richard Usborne]]; Sherlock Holmes and Jeeves are "the great brains" while [[Dr. Watson]] and Bertie are "the awed companion-narrators, bungling things if they try to solve the problems themselves".<ref>Usborne (2003), ''Plum Sauce: A P G Wodehouse Companion'', pp. 58–59.</ref> Jeeves and Bertie have been described as comic versions of Holmes and Watson.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/11/conan-doyle-holmes-fiction |title=Holmes and away |last=Dirda |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Dirda |date=10 November 2011 |website=New Statesman America |access-date=23 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Meyers|first1=Jeffrey|last2=Meyers|first2=Valerie|author-link1=Jeffrey Meyers|title=The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader: From Sherlock Holmes to Spiritualism|publisher=Cooper Square Press|location=New York|year=2002|page=xii|isbn=9781461661276}}</ref> Wodehouse directly compares Jeeves and Bertie to Holmes and Watson in some of the Jeeves stories, such as in ''[[Aunts Aren't Gentlemen]]''.<ref>Thompson (1992), pp. 112–114.</ref>