Jerome Klapka Jerome

Jerome Klapka Jerome 1859-1927, English humorist and playwright. His Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Three Men in a Boat (1889) gave him his reputation for genial humor. Of his dramatic works, The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1907), a contemporary morality play, was the most famous.

Bibliography: See study by R. M. Favrot (1973).

Jerome, Jerome Klapka (1859–1927), English humorist, now chiefly remembered for his novel Three Men in a Boat, not to Mention the Dog (1899). He wrote also a number of plays, of which the only one still in the repertory is The Passing of the Third-Floor Back (1908), in which Forbes-Robertson scored a signal triumph as the mysterious and Christlike stranger whose sojourn in a Bloomsbury lodging-house changes the lives of all its inhabitants.

Jerome, Jerome K. ( Jerome Klapka Jerome) (1859–1927), achieved lasting fame with Three Men in a Boat (1889), the story of three young men and their dog who take a rowing holiday on the Thames. In 1892 Jerome and some friends founded the Idler, a humorous magazine which published work by Harte, Twain, and W. W. Jacobs, among others. His other works include On the Stage and Off (1885) and Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886), both collections of light essays; Three Men on the Bummel (1900); Paul Klever (1902), an autobiographical novel; and many plays, in the manner of his friend Barrie, including The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1907).