Acting+career

=Acting career and early literary works.=

Jerome's childhood was very difficult as his parents were falling into financial ruin and it left its mark on him. His father had a streak of bad luck with an unsuccessful attempt at mining speculation, then in investment of an ironmongers and then coal mining. Early on Jerome wanted to become a Member of Parliament, but that was not to be. He attended the Philological School, later known as the Marylebone Grammar School. In 1872 his mother died and he was on his own. He started work at the London and North Western Railway. He had a number of occupations then including journalism and school teaching, and a number of disappointments with the rejections of many short stories and satires he wrote. His experience as an actor led to his novel On the Stage—and Off (1885) and his play Barbara. (1886) In true Jerome style he dedicated his collection of essays The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) to his pipe: "To the friend who, treated with marked coolness by all the female members of my household, and regarded with suspicion by my very dog, nevertheless seems day by day to be more drawn by me, and in return to more and more impregnate me with the odor of his friendship."