Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome Klapka Jerome (born May 2, 1859 in Walsall , Staffordshire , † June 14, 1927 in Northampton ) was an English author. He became famous for his humorous novel Three Men in a Boat , which also served as a template for several feature films .

Life

youth

Jerome K. Jerome with his dog

Jerome was the fourth child of Jerome Clapp, who later called himself Jerome Clapp Jerome, and Marguerite Jones. The father was a hardware dealer , lay preacher and tried his hand at an architect. Jerome had two sisters, Paulina and Blandina, and a brother, Milton, who died early. Jerome was given his father's adopted name, "Jerome Clapp Jerome". The name form "Klapka" seems to be a variation after the Hungarian exile general György Klapka , who was worshiped by Jerome's father. The family moved to east London early and Jerome attended Marylebone Grammar School. Unfortunate investments in local mining made the family impoverished and debt collectors often came home, an experience Jerome vividly describes in his autobiography "My Life and Times". Young Jerome wanted to go into politics or become a writer. However, the death of both parents in 1872 when Jerome was 13 years old forced him to quit school to work and support himself. He got a job with the London and North Western Railway , where he initially collected coal that had fallen along the tracks. He stayed there for four years.

Acting career and early literary work

In 1877, inspired by his sister's love for the theater, Jerome decided to try his stage talent with Harold Crichton . He joined a troupe of actors trying to produce plays on a shoestring budget, often having to provide costumes and props from their own modest pocket. Jerome described this time when it happened that he literally ran out of a penny, later very funny in On the Stage - and Off . After three unsuccessful years on the street, 21-year-old Jerome had had enough of stage life and looked for something else to do. He tried his hand at being a journalist, writing essays, satires and short stories. But most of them were not accepted. For the next several years he was a school teacher, packer and paralegal. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with On the Stage - and Off , a humorous publication that paved the way for further work. In 1886, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow , a collection of humorous essays, followed. He married Georgina Elizabeth Henrietta Stanley Marris (called Ettie) on June 21, 1888, nine days after her divorce from her first husband, with whom she had been married for five years and with whom she had a daughter. The honeymoon took place on the Thames instead, a fact that significant influence on Jerome's next and most important work was: Three Men in a Boat , Three Men in a Boat .

Three men in one boat and a future career

As soon as the couple returned from their honeymoon, Jerome set about writing Three Men in One Boat . In this novella, he replaced his wife with his long-time friends George Wingrave (George) and Carl Hentschel (Harris). This allowed him to describe the humorous situations quite unsentimentally. He used the course of the Thames as a storyline on which he lined up the individual episodes and anecdotes. The book was published in 1889 and was an instant success. It was so popular that the number of Thames boats registered doubled in the year after its release and the Thames became a tourist attraction. In the first twenty years alone, it was sold over a million times worldwide and is still printed today. In the USA a million copies of a pirated print were sold in a short time, and it was also enthusiastically received in Russia. It served as a template for films, television and radio shows, plays and even for a musical. The writing style influenced many humorists and satirists not only in England. The story, originally planned as a serious travelogue, developed into a humoresque , influenced by contemporary Mark Twain . Jerome's criticism of Victorian hypocrisy of education, his healthy motherhood and his exaggeration and self-irony made his book a classic of English humor. In Germany the book is still used as school reading today.

With the financial security he had gained, Jerome was now able to devote himself exclusively to writing. He wrote a number of plays, essays and short stories, but never again achieved a success like Three Men in One Boat . In 1892 Jerome was asked by Robert Barr to edit the magazine The Idler (Eng .: The Idler ). This illustrious satirical magazine appeared monthly and was aimed at gentlemen who followed his motto, i.e. who indulged in idleness. In 1893 Jerome founded To-Day magazine , but eventually had to part with both publications due to financial difficulties and an honorary deal.

In 1898 a short stay in Germany inspired him to do Three Men on the Bummel, the sequel to Three Men in a Boat . Although it now described the same characters on a bicycle tour, the book could not in the least build on the vitality of its predecessor. So it was only a modest success. In 1902 Jerome published the largely autobiographical book Paul Kelver , for which he received excellent reviews and was even compared with Charles Dickens .

Jerome as a playwright

In 1908 the piece Passing of the Third Floor Back followed , which showed a gloomy Jerome and was only reluctantly accepted by the audience. A Christ-like stranger visits a rundown boarding house and changes the lives of the residents. In the first performance, the main role was played by the famous Hamlet actor Sir John Forbes-Robertson . The piece was performed until the 1960s. The overwhelming success of “Three Men in One Boat” generally fades Jerome's stage successes into the background, as he had already produced four plays years before and written another 15. Many of them had considerable success in London and America.

Grave in Ewelme

World War I and later years

With the outbreak of World War I, Jerome volunteered for the army, but - he was 56 years old - was rejected. But he finally got his wish through and became a volunteer ambulance driver in the French army. The war experience weighed heavily on him. His secretary reported, “Old Jerome has gone. In his place there is now a stranger, a broken man. ”In 1921, his beloved stepdaughter Elsie died early.

While driving his wife Ettie on their return from Devon to London, Jerome suffered a stroke with a cerebral haemorrhage. Jerome died on June 14, 1927, after two weeks in the Northampton hospital, during which he could not move or speak. His wife survived him by eleven years. The daughter Rowena died unmarried in 1966. The family is buried in the churchyard at Ewelme , Oxfordshire, not far from the Thames.

Jerome was good friends with J. M. Barrie , H. G. Wells , Rudyard Kipling , Arthur Conan Doyle , Thomas Hardy, and Israel Zangwill . In his birthplace Walsall (then part of Staffordshire ) there is now a museum in his honor.

Works

Short stories and novels

• The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) (dt .: the idle thoughts of an idle )
• Three Men in a Boat (1889) (German: three men in a boat )
• The Diary of a Pilgrimage (1891)
• Novel Notes (1893) (German: Roman Studies , 1896)
• The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1898)
• Three Men on the Bummel (aka Three Men on Wheels ) (1900) (German: Three men on a stroll )
• Paul Kelver, a novel (1902) (Eng .: The fog rises , 1936)
• Tommy and Co (1904)
• They and I (1909) (German: You and I , 1926)
• Malvina of Brittany (1916) (Eng .: Angels do not cast shadows )
• All Roads Lead to Calvary (1919) (German: All roads lead to Golgotha , 1922)
• Anthony John (1923) (German: Anthony John , 1924)
• The man who would manage . (German: The everyday man: sketches , 1969)
• The Love of Ulrich Nebendahl (1999)
• The Philosopher's Joke (1999)

Collections of short stories

• Told After Supper (1891)
• John Ingerfield: And Other Stories (1894)
• Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green (1895)
• The Observations of Henry (1901)
• The Angel and the Author and Others (1904)
• American Wives and Others (1904)
• The Passing of the Third Floor Back: And Other Stories (1907)
• Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel (1974)
• After Supper Ghost Stories: And Other Tales (1985)

Individual short stories

• The Haunted Mill (1891)
• The New Utopia (1891)
• The Dancing Partner (1893)
• Christmas Eve in the Blue Chamber
• Silhouettes (dt. Silhouettes )
• The skeleton
• The snake
• The Woman of the Saeter

Stage plays

• Barbara (1886)
• Sunset (1888)
• Fennel 1888
• Woodbarrow Farm (1888)
• New Lamps for Old (1890)
• Ruth (1890)
• The Rise of Dick Halward (1895)
• The Prude's Progress (1895)
• Biarritz (1896)
• The MacHaggis (1898)
• The Russian Vagabond (ca.1895)
• Miss Hobbs (1902)
• Fanny and the Servant Problem (1909) (German: Lady Fanny, directing and prompting book , 1934)
• The Passing of the Third Floor Back Hurst & Blackett (1908)
• The Master of Mrs. Chilvers
• Esther Castways (1913)
• The Great Gamble (1914)
• Robina in Search of a Husband (1914)
• Cook (1917)
• The Celebrity (1926)
• The Soul of Nicholas Snyders (1927)

Editor and publisher

• The Idler (1892-1898)
• To-Day (1893–1898)
• My First Book (1894)

Autobiography

• My Life and Times (1926)

literature

• A. Moss: JKJ: His Life and Works . London 1929.
• W. Gutkess: JKJ His personality u. literary importance . Jena 1939.
• MA Wolfensberger: JKJ His literary work . Zurich 1953.

Web links

Commons : Jerome K. Jerome  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Jerome K. Jerome in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Jerome K. Jerome in Project Gutenberg ( currently usually not available for users from Germany )
• Works by Jerome K. Jerome in the Gutenberg-DE project
• The Jerome K. Jerome Society , engl.