Jerome K Jerome: A Writer Remembered For Just One Book
That book, “Three Men in a Boat” is an all-time classic that he was never able to match
Jerome Klapka Jerome was born on 2nd May 1859 in Walsall, Staffordshire, where his father, Jerome Clapp Jerome, owned a coal mine. Jerome senior had originally been Jerome Clapp, but preferred his first name to his surname so he repeated it. Jerome junior had originally had the same name as his father but in later life changed “Clapp” to “Klapka”.
The colliery went bankrupt and the family moved to London where Jerome senior became an ironmonger. However, he died when Jerome junior was only 13. Jerome had been attending what was to become Marylebone Grammar School, but his father’s death meant that he had to earn his own living and support his mother, which he did by becoming a clerk on the London and North-Western Railway until his mother died two years later.
Jerome became a part-time actor (later full-time) and also dabbled in journalism and teaching. He tried his hand at writing and wrote the first of many plays in 1886. He had already published a set of humorous sketches in 1885 based on his acting experiences, entitled “On the Stage — and Off”.
He married Georgina Marris in 1888, shortly after her divorce from her first…
