Jerome K. Jerome (May 2, 1859 – June 14, 1927) was an English writer and humorist known for Three Men in a Boat (1889). He was born in Walsall, an industrial town in the midlands just northwest of Birmingham. His education was cut short by the death of his father, an ironmonger, at age 13 and his mother two years later.  He worked for the railroad for four years and then tried his hand at acting for several years without much success.  He turned to writing while working as a teacher, clerk, and other odd jobs, and achieved some success with a comic memoir of his acting experiences and with Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a collection of comic essays. His marriage in 1888 was followed by a honeymoon in a little boat on the Thames, which inspired him to write Three Men in a Boat, which was an instant and massive bestseller. Financial security enabled him to write full time. He became editor of the Idler and a To-Day, a magazine he founded, but withdrew following financial and legal difficulties.  He produced Three Men on the Bummel (1898), a sequel to Three Men in a Boat with the characters on a bicycle trip in Germany.  He published Paul Kelver, a novel, in 1902, and a play, The Passing of the Third Floor Back, which was a commercial success but critical disaster.  He published his autobiography in 1926. He died the following year from a stroke suffered on a motoring tour.