[Andrew]

Identifying the ‘True First’ seems problematic. I have a copy with no 2/6 or ‘edition’ on the cover. An inscription on the FFE is dated July 1889, T4283 under the Field letterpress, all the mistakes in the text are present. Grateful for any guidance on this.

[Andrew]

Sorry if this is a bit late. The quote comes from the Dec 16, 1893 issue of To-Day, page 18. The full paragraph reads:

ADVICE TO THE NERVOUS
The statistics of influenza have been appearing in the daily papers of late and I suppose that the inevitable results will follow. A number of persons will take an injudicious care of themselves, a selection of the more advertised quack medicines, and a serious fright; subsequently they will be likely to take the influenza. And the man who does his day’s work, takes the average risks, thinks very little about his bodily health, and regards influenza as a complaint and not as a mysterious ghost with its eye upon him in particular, will be much less likely to take it. Nervous cowardice is an invitation to the influenza. Is there any remedy for nervous cowardice? The best remedy is to acquire an interest in anything or anybody except one’s self. Courage depends less upon the individual than upon the individual’s point of view. Eat good dinners and drink good wine; read good novels if you have the leisure and see good plays; fall in love if there is no reason why you should not fall in love; but do not pore over influenza statistics.

[Andrew]

Jerome published one volume of ghost stories, but, being himself, they are not really ghost stories per se; rather they are very much ´tounge-in-cheek´ ghost stories. The volume is Told after Supper (1891), republished as After Supper Ghost Stories (and variations of this title). Some republishings claim to include not only TaS, but more material. I have not seen or read any of those.

Apart from this, I have seen a part of Novel Notes (1893) published separately as The Man of Science; it is a straight ghost story. Apart from this, I have not read anything ghastly by Jerome. (But I still haven’t read all he wrote, far from it.)

Do you know the titles of any of the volumes you are referring to? If so, one could google and perhaps find out what Jerome stories are included.

[Andrew]

I have done a search in my Delphi e-edition, with no hits. Searching for parts, like ´good wine´, ´influenza´etc also did not give any results even remotely comparable to the quote above.

Google does not seem to have this quote attributed to anyone else, nor have I been able to find any variations/misspellings, which probably means that the attribution originated from one source only. This, however, does not mean the attribution is correct. If it is Jerome, it is probably from some uncollected article.

The Delphi edition includes the following:

Contents:The Novels
Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog)
Three Men On The Bummel
Paul Kelver
Tommy And Co.
They And I
All Roads Lead To Calvary

The Short Story Collections
Told After Supper
John Ingerfield And Other Stories
Sketches In Lavender, Blue And Green
The Observations Of Henry
The Passing Of The Third Floor Back, And Other Stories
The Angel And The Author And Others
Malvina Of Brittanythe Short Stories
List Of Short Stories In Chronological Order
List Of Short Stories In Alphabetical Order

The Plays
Fanny And The Servant Problem
The Master Of Mrs. Chilvers

The Non-Fiction
Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow
On The Stage And Off
Stageland
The Diary Of A Pilgrimage, And Six Essays
Novel Notes
Second Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow
Tea-Table Talk
Idle Ideas In 1905

The Biography
Jerome K: Jerome: His Life And Works By Alfred Moss

[Andrew]

I am also interested in obtaining back copies of Idle Thoughts. If a member of the Society in the United States could mail me the missing issues, I would be satisfied to make copies and return the originals. I would reimburse that member for the original shipping.

[Andrew]

There are many story and folks about him, and I don’t know what indeed is true, maybe until I see some proof that he once existed in the community or at least evidence that he have been to the place. Many photos also showing some of his belongings and indicating the location but for me is not sufficient maybe until I didn’t see and hold a physical photo.

Regards.
Frank of http://www.debbieirwin.com/

[Andrew]

Hello 🙂 I’m new and glad to have found your site which looks really nice. Thanks for your efforts here. I’m disappointed I did not discover the old one and hope former members will be rejoining. I got hooked on JKJ when I was very young, so I look forward to seeing what other folks have to say.
Cheers!
Elly in Nanaimo, BC, Canada

[Andrew]

I wonder if someone from the society would mind contacting me please. I work for the University of Wolverhampton and we are considering naming one of our buildings on our Walsall campus after Jerome K Jerome, and I would like to explore this further and seek the society’s advice. My email address is claire.shaw@wlv.ac.uk.

Many thanks

Claire Shaw
Head of Alumni and Development
Marketing and Communications I University of Wolverhampton
MX Building I City Campus Molinuex (North) I Camp Street IWolverhampton I WV1 1AD

T: 01902 321108 M:07972 624794
E:Claire.Shaw@wlv.ac.uk

[Andrew]

Do send any photos to me and I’ll add them to a photo gallery of some sort. Send to asteven (at) asteven (dot) com. Thanks. Andrew.

[Andrew]

I have taken a photo of the filling station and also have a contemporary photo from around 1930. In those days it was called Brunskill’s Shell Garage and had a rather striking, period, five-sided pagoda style slate roof, the style of which is preserved to this day. It is located on the main A40 (London Road), quite near the centre of Cheltenham, and was the town’s first petrol station. I will submit the photos if someone can tell me how.

The information source was a lady who contacted my historian friend within the last couple of years. Apparently, a close relative of hers (grandfather possibly) owned the garage and had told her of Jerome’s visit on the day of his last journey from Devon.

[Andrew]

Jeremy,
I can certainly obtain a photo of the petrol station. Not sure how to upload it this site, but can easily forward it to a normal e-mail address. The information came from a friend, who is a local journalist, historian and fellow Jerome enthusiast. I will also try to obtain a contemporary photo and further information.

[Andrew]

What a lot of addresses for one lifetime!

I can’t match Johnboy’s claim to live in a former home of Jerome. However, I recently unearthed a rather interesting connection with my home town in Cheltenham. On his final (and never completed) car journey from Devon to London in 1927 Jerome filled up his car at a Cheltenham petrol station that is less than half a mile from my home. Later that day, while travelling through Northampton, he suffered a stroke and subsequently passed away in their General Hospital.

The filling station in question still exists. Perhaps there should be a plaque?

[Andrew]

Thanks Baron Borg. And to all of you using the site, please give us (me) your feedback, positive and negative. I can only improve things if I hear from you. Just leave me messages in this forum and between us we’ll hopefully give you the website you always wanted!

[Andrew]

Delighted to learn of the new site. From what I have seen it is easy to navigate and promises to be a much safer harbor for our chats. Thank you, Andrew.

[Andrew]

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seanwiles 04 February, 2006, 10:03:19 PM

This is a mysterious and interesting tale, I would like to know more, is there some connection between john phillips stafford and julius stafford baker? if not the stafford bit is a hell of a coincidence.
also , who was Phil May?
and “a few guineas” was quite a lot of money to pay an apprentice in the 1890’s

[Author]

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