High quality My Life And Times, by Jerome K. Jerome. 1st American Edition, 1st Printing.

Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May, 1859 – 14 June, 1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)", 1889, and "Three Men on the Bummel" (a.k.a. 'Three Men on Wheels'), 1900.

Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England. He was the fourth child of Marguerite Jones and Jerome Clapp (who later renamed himself Jerome Clapp Jerome), an ironmonger and lay preacher who dabbled in architecture. He had two sisters, Paulina and Blandina, and one brother, Milton, who died at an early age. The family fell into poverty owing to bad investments in the local mining industry, and debt collectors visited often, an experience that Jerome described vividly in his autobiography "My Life and Times" (1926).

Young Jerome attended St. Marylebone Grammar School. He wished to go into politics or be a man of letters, but the death of his father when he was only 13, and of his mother when he was just 15, forced him to quit his studies to find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North Western Railway, initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, and he remained there for four years.

He decided to try his hand at acting in 1877, under the stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a repertory troupe that produced plays on a shoestring budget, but after three years on the road with no success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided that he had enough of stage life and sought other occupations. He tried to become a journalist, writing essays, satires, and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years, he was a school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with "On the Stage – and Off" (1885), a comic memoir of his experiences with the acting troupe, followed by "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" (1886), a collection of humorous essays which appeared in the newly founded magazine, Home Chimes.

On 21 June, 1888, Jerome married Georgina Elizabeth Henrietta Stanley Marris ("Ettie"), nine days after she divorced her first husband. She had a daughter from her previous five-year marriage, nicknamed Elsie (her actual name was also Georgina). The honeymoon took place on the Thames "in a little boat," a fact that was to have a significant influence on his next and most important work.

Soon after the couple returned from their honeymoon, Jerome sat down to high quality write "Three Men in a Boat". In the novel, his wife was replaced by his longtime friends George Wingrave (George) and Carl Hentschel (Harris). The book, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been out of print. Its popularity was such that the number of registered Thames boats went up fifty percent in the year following its publication, and it contributed significantly to the Thames becoming a tourist attraction. In its first twenty years alone, the book sold over a million copies worldwide. It has been adapted to films, TV and radio shows, stage plays, and a musical. Its writing style influenced many humorists and satirists in England and elsewhere.

With the financial security that the sales of the book provided, Jerome was able to dedicate all of his time to writing. He wrote a number of plays, essays, and novels, including the essay collections, "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" (1886), and "Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow"; at least 10 novels, including "Paul Klevar, a novel" (1902), and a multitude of plays, including a very commercially successful one, called "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" (1908), which was twice made into a movie.

Jerome suffered a stroke and a cerebral hemorrhage in June, 1927, and lay in hospital for two weeks before dying on 14 June. He was cremated at Golders Green, and his ashes buried at St Mary's Church, Ewelme, Oxfordshire. Elsie, Ettie, and his sister Blandina are buried beside him. His gravestone reads "For we are labourers together with God".

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Harper & Brothers, NY, 1926.

1st American Edition, 1st Printing.

9 1/2" X 6 1/4".

With B&W frontis of the author (transparency intact).

Very Good(+) copy.



Dark blue cloth, deckled pages, gilt letters. Minor spine bumping, head & foot, corners. Light rubbing at spine ends, board edges. End-papers are yellowing from age. Previous seller's price, in pencil, top corner of front free fly - no other markings. Spine gilt somewhat dull, but intact & legible. Printed on heavy stock. Just a hint of spine slant & head separation, but tightly bound. Both hinges are sound. 318 pages.