Extricating Young Gussie

Extricating Young Gussie is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), being the first appearance of two of his most popular characters, the ingenious valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster. It was first published in the U.S. in the 18 September 1915 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and in the UK in the January 1916 edition of The Strand Magazine. It was included in the collection The Man with Two Left Feet (1917).

Extricating Young Gussie features the first appearance of some of Wodehouse's most popular and enduring characters – valet extraordinaire Jeeves (whose role in this debut story is very small) and his master Bertie Wooster (whose surname is not actually mentioned). Bertie's imperious Aunt Agatha also appears.

The first meeting of Jeeves and Bertie would be chronicled one year later, in the November 1916 short story Jeeves Takes Charge.

Some elements of the plot of "Extricating Young Gussie" were later incorporated by Wodehouse into a 1918 Jeeves story, "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril."

Aunt Agatha drags Bertie out of bed "in the small hours [around] half past eleven". She is most distressed that her nephew, and Bertie's cousin Gussie Mannering-Phipps "has lost his head over a creature", a chorus-girl in New York City that he may marry, so she demands that Bertie head over there and stop him.

Arriving at Gussie's New York hotel, Bertie is surprised to find no sign of his cousin. Out in the bustling street he runs into Gussie, now going by the name of "George Wilson", who is about to appear on the music-hall stage in order to please his girl's ex-pro father. Bertie, worried by this, telegraphs his Aunt Julia (Gussie's mother) for help.

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