Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome was an English writer, journalist, and playwright.

Jerome was the fourth child in the family of Jerome Clapp (Jerome Clapp in English), who later changed his name to Jerome Clapp Jerome (Jerome Clapp Jerome in English). Jerome’s father was a hardware merchant as well as a lay preacher. In addition to Jerome, there were three other children in the family: the daughters Paulina and Blandina and a son, Milton, who died in infancy. Jerome, like his father, was registered under the name Jerome Clapp Jerome. The middle name, Klapka, appeared later (in honor of the Hungarian émigré General György Klapka). The Jerome family fell into poverty after unsuccessful investments in the local mining industry. Frequent visits by creditors to the Jerome house were later vividly described by him in the autobiographical book My Life and Times.

The young Jerome wanted to become a politician or a writer, but the death of his parents in 1872 (Jerome was then only 13 years old) forced him to interrupt his education and look for work. He took a job with the London and North Western Railway, where he worked for four years, collecting coal scattered along the railway tracks.

In 1877, influenced by his sister Blandina, who was passionate about the theater, Jerome decided to try his hand at acting under the stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a theater troupe that attempted to stage low-budget plays; often the productions were mounted at the actors’ own expense, and they paid for their costumes and props themselves. Jerome later humorously described those times and his complete lack of money in the novella On the Stage — and Off. After three years of unsuccessful attempts to break through, the 21-year-old Jerome decided to leave acting and look for a new occupation. He tried journalism, wrote essays and satirical stories, but most were rejected for publication. Over the next several years he worked as a teacher, packer, and lawyer’s secretary. Finally, in 1885, success came to him with the publication of the humorous novella On the Stage — and Off, which “opened the door” to Jerome’s subsequent plays and essays. Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a collection of humorous essays, was published in 1886. On 21 June 1888 Jerome