01. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor

1

1. **On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. London, Field & Tuer, 1885.
   
   A4 B-L8. Pp. i-v vi-viii 1 2-160.
   Contents: i half-title; ii blank; iii title-page; iv [ornament, 33 x 30mm, with Field & Tuer monogram in center] / FIELD & TUER, / THE LEADENHALL PRESS, E.C. / T. 4,211.; v-vi Preface; vii-viii Contents; 1 2-160 text.
   Each chapter has a small ornament at end.
   Printed on laid paper, chain lines vertical; size 175 x 110mm, edges uncut.
   *Faded pink paper cover, lettered in black.
   Inserted at the end, Field & Tuer’s List (8 pages).
   Previously serialized in The Play, Volume 2, 25 January-17 May, 1883, as Reminiscences of a Brief Stage Career. By a Would-be Actor. Only the last article is signed.
   Reviewed in Pall Mall Gazette, 15 May 1885, 5.
   Copies seen: FR; Bodleian Library – Arch.H.e.162, Jerome’s leather-bound copy, without advertisements, inscribed in elegant script ‘To the “Leading lady” on his own / Stage of life, this little book is humbly / & respectfully dedicated, by / The Author / April 1885.’, British Library – 12619.aa.35, accession date 11 April 1885, rebound, lacks original paper covers; Library of Congress.
   This edition was reprinted in 1890, with a Leadenhall Press imprint, and without the date on the title-page.
   Copies seen: APR (2).
2. *On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. London, The Leadenhall Press, [1891].
   
   
   A4 B-O8 P6. Pp. i-v vi-viii 1 2-219 220.
   Contents: i blank; ii frontispiece; iii title-page; iv large ornament with masks, approximately 41 x 65mm, followed by the publisher’s name and address and code number ‘T 4,571.’; v-vi Preface; vii-viii Contents; 1 2-219 text; 220 blank.
   Illustrations (95 in all) include frontispiece, full-page plates, heads of chapters, ornamental initials at beginning of chapters and illustrations in text; the frontispiece and full-page plates are included in the collation and pagination.
   Printed on wove paper; size 184 x 122m. Patterned endpapers.
   *Reddish brown cloth, black lettering on front and spine.
   14 pages of publisher’s advertisements are inserted after the final gathering.
   Listed in English Catalogue, December 1891, 2/6.
   Copies seen: FR; APR (6).
   A later impression has the code number ‘T 4,571. / 2’ on p. iv.
   Copies seen: FR; APR.
3. **On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1891.
   
   
   Unsigned. 1-128. Pp. [2] i-ii iii-vi 1-170; 1 2-14.
   Contents: [1] blank; [2] JEROME K. JEROME’S BOOKS. / AUTHOR’S EDITION. [the number of titles listed varies, indicating the approximate date of later impressions]; i title-page; ii AUTHOR’S EDITION / THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, / RAHWAY, N.J.;
   iii-iv Preface; v-vi Contents; 1-170 text; 1 2-14 A LIST OF BOOKS IN / GENERAL LITERATURE / PUBLISHED BY / HENRY HOLT & CO., NEW YORK.
   Each chapter begins with an ornamental initial.
   Printed on wove paper; size 184 x 124mm.
   *Dull light blue cloth, with gilt lettering on front and spine.
   Listed in Publisher’s Weekly 1007, 16 May 1891; American Catalog 1890-95, $1.00; reviewed in New York Times, 21 June 1891, 19.
   Copies seen: FR; APR; University of Illinois Library; University of Miami Library.
   Also issued in brown paper covers, described as ‘Leisure moment Ser / Second Group No.16’ and without the publisher’s list at the end.
   Listed in American Catalog 1890-95, 25¢.
   Copies seen: University of Chicago Library.
4. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor; Told after Supper. New York, M. J. Ivers. 154p. (American Series).
   Copies seen: Texas Technological University Library – title-page & first page of text.
5. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. New York, Minerva Pub. Co 201p.
   Copies seen: University of Wisconsin Library – title-page & first page of text.
6. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor, and Told after Supper. Boston, Raymond, 1891. 262p.
   Not seen
7. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. With an Introduction by Jeremy Nicholas. With One Hundred Illustrations by Kenneth M. Skeaping Stroud, Glos., Alan Sutton, 1991. 143p.
   Red cloth, gilt lettered on spine.
   Copies seen: FR; APR
8. On the Stage – and Off: the Brief Career of a Would-be Actor. With an Introduction by Jeremy Nicholas. With One Hundred Illustrations by Kenneth M. Skeaping Paris, Editions Alain Moreau., 1991. 143p.
   Not seen.