Jerome K. Jerome was an English writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Born in 1859, he published his first work in 1885, "On Stage and Off", a collection of humorous sketches about the theater. In his lifetime he was also known as a journalist, playwright, and the founder of a magazine called "The Idler". Today he is chiefly remembered as a humorist. His most famous books include "The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow", Three Men in a Boat, and its sequel "Three Men on the Bummel." "Three Men in a Boat", written in 1888, recounts the misadventures of three middle-class London-types and one dog trying to have a boating vacation on the Thames. The sequel, published in 1900, reunites the group on a bicycle-tour of Germany. As bizarre as it sounds, his name is not a pseudonym. He died in 1927. (Source: Penguin Books)