Jerome Klapka Jerome Biography and Works.

Jerome Klapka Jerome (May 2, 1859 – June 14, 1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue, Three Men in a Boat.

Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London. He attended St Marylebone Grammar School.

Jerome was the fourth child of Jerome Clapp, an iron monger and lay preacher who dabbled in architecture, and Marguerite Jones. Jerome K Jerome was registered, like his father’s amended name, as Jerome Clapp Jerome, and the Klapka appears to be a later variation.

Owing to bad investments in the local mining industry, the family suffered poverty, and debt collectors often visited. This was an experience of Jerome’s life, which he has described vividly in his autobiography, My Life and Times.

His other works include the essay collections, ‘Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow’ and ‘Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow’. Several other novels are credited in his name including Three Men on the Bummel is a sequel to Three Men in a Boat.

Trivia

The young Jerome wished to go into politics or be a man of letters but the death of his father at the age of 13 and his mother at the age of 15, forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North-Western Railway, initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, remaining there for about four years.