Early Spanish translations of Wodehouse in magazines

The bulk of the existing Spanish translations of P. G. Wodehouse was done in the period 1942-1950 by the industry of the prominent publisher Josep Janés, who produced no less than 46 titles (by 16 different translators; in his rather short career he accumulated around 1,600 editions to his name). After that only a few items have been erratically added to the list, with many of his later books, and some of the earlier as well, still untranslated.

Before the 40s, only three translations had appeared:

• El simpático haragán (= Bill the Conqueror, tr. by Victor Lletjet, Iberia 1926)
• Las genialidades de Sam (= Sam the Sudden, tr. by G. López Hipkiss, HYMSA 1935)
• El pescador en la red (= Bill the Conqueror again, tr. by Guillermo Labarca H., Letras, Santiago de Chile, 1938)

All are valuable collectors' items today. McIlvaine in her Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist only mentions the second.

However, a number of stories had been published in magazines since the early 20s, one of them at least predating the first book. These are the ones known to me, all from South American periodicals:

• "La 'chance' del boxeador Billson" (= "The Return of Battling Billson" (1823), Caras y Caretas, September 15, 1923)
• "El colegio de Ukridge para perros" (= "Ukridge's Dog College" (1923), Caras y Caretas, March 15, 1924)
• "¡Galantería!" (="Compromised!" (1931), Mundo Argentino, August 19 1931)
• "Una Voz del Pasado" (= "The Voice from the Past" (1931), Aconcagua, February 1932)
• "El Cuco" (= "The Nodder" (1933), Aconcagua, March 1933)
• "El Héroe y el Gorila" (= "Monkey Business" (1932), Aconcagua, June 1933)
• "Socorriendo a Dora" (= "First Aid for Dora" (1923), Caras y Caretas, December 17, 1938)
• "La aventura del perro" (= "Episode of the Dog McIntosh" (1929), Mundo Uruguayo, January 25, 1940)

As can be seen, Caras y Caretas (Buenos Aires) specialized in Ukridge stories and Aconcagua (Buenos Aires) in Mulliner stories, while Mundo Uruguayo (Montevideo) is the only Jeeves & Wooster item and Mundo Argentino is a Drones story. All the translations until 1933 were published shortly after the first appearance of their originals in American or British magazines and were clearly taken directly from them rather than from the books.

In fact, while all have illustrations, the first two Caras stories just reproduce most of those in Cosmopolitan, while the late Ukridge translation "Dora" has one color illustration by "Faber". "¡Galantería!" also has two illustrations from Cosmopolitan. "Una Voz" and "Cuco" reproduce some from American Magazine ("Una Voz" has one apparently original drawing), while "El Héroe" uses those of Strand. Finally, "La aventura" has one original drawing by "Kike". All the illustrations taken from other magazines are uncredited.

All the translation are equally uncredited, except for "Dora" which is signed "L. C." This one is heavily abridged from its original. Of the rest, I have noticed that "El Héroe" simplifies the typical Mulliner introduction at the Angler's Rest to a couple of short paragraphs.

This list was compiled from copies available at various online repositories of digitized periodicals, but these are far from complete. It is very likely that other translations existed, waiting to be dug out.

From "Socorriendo a Dora" in Caras y Caretas

From "La aventura del perro" in Mundo Uruguayo