Jerome Klapka Jerome
He could transform a simple boat ride into an epic saga of overpacked luggage, imagined illnesses, and disastrous attempts at cooking. Equal parts storyteller and serial overthinker, he approached the world like a confused tourist – annoyed but ready to turn embarrassment into entertainment.
#quotes
"Education is the most important thing in the world, and the most mismanaged."
#lessons
Why suffer in silence when you can voice it out
and make everyone laugh about it?
#facts
William Willett was one of his schoolmates, though they had three years apart.
It was in London. A young man in mid-20s appeared in Marylebone (he had actually grown up there, but who keeps faces of noisy schoolboys in memory). Walking along Portland Place – a wide street with an opening to Regent’s Park at its northern end – he was looking around and making notes in his notebook. The police noticed the man showing up mainly in the evenings when it was already dark. He looked serious and dreamy at the same time. They had never seen him doing anything against the law, but the whole situation appeared suspicious enough for the policemen to start the dialogue.
1885. Jerome K. Jerome publishes On the Stage – and Off.
Critics: What a rubbish!
General audience: It’s funny, let’s buy a copy!
Theatre workers [in whisper]: And it’s so true to life…
***
1886. Jerome K. Jerome publishes Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow.
Critics: His first book was so much better! This one is certainly a failure.
General audience: Oh, is it a new book by that very author who used to be an actor? And this one sounds even funnier. Let’s have two copies!
Despite all mockery and abusing treatment, they sold more than 22 000 copies of this book already by the end of the year.
@book
No Summer, No Money, Big Dreams
How are bicycles and milk chocolate related? Why would they hardly appear if not for a volcano eruption somewhere in Indonesia? Were they three men in a boat or on a bike, and what was the life plan of the man who told their story?