7 May 2024
By Göran R Buckhorn
An older version of this article once appeared on rowing historian Bill Miller’s website Friends of Rowing History. The following updated version in two parts has some interesting information that has emerged since the first version was published. It puts a new light on Constance MacEwen’s novel Three Women in One Boat (1891) as MacEwen was married to a sculling star.
Never out of print since it was first published in 1889, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome is the wittiest and funniest book ever written about a rowing trip on the River Thames. Never has Father Thames seen recreational rowing celebrate such triumphs in idleness as when ‘J’, Harris, George and the dog Montmorency go on a water Odyssey. Although the book was an immediate success among the public, who loved to read this travelogue about the three men’s adventures on the water and in the towns and villages from Kingston to Oxford, it met with tepid reviews in the press. The critics raised concerns about the vulgar style and derided the working-class slang Jerome used in his novel – nor did they approve of his “new humour”. The satirical magazine Punch, which at this time published cartoons of the lower classes, mocking their use of leaving out the first letter in names, ridiculed the author and renamed him “’Arry K. ’Arry”.
Jerome Clapp Jerome was born in 1859 – he would later change his middle name to Klapka. He grew up under poor circumstances due to his father’s bad investments. Jerome had to give up his studies as a teen when first his father died in 1871 and his mother the year after. After working as a railway clerk for a few years, he went into acting, but it turned out to be a bad career move. However, after Jerome had tried his hand in other unsuccessful occupations, his former work on the stage gave him material to write the humorous book On the Stage – and Off, which was published in 1885. This book opened doors to the publishing world and the following year he came out with an entertaining collection of essays called Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow.
Different sources tell different stories about the background of his next book, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). Some say that Jerome K. Jerome sat down to write the story after he came home from a voyage on the Thames with his wife, Georgina. They married on 21 June 1888 and spent their honeymoon on a little boat on the Thames, though they spent the nights in different inns along the river. Other sources say that it was after he had been out rowing on the river with his friends George Wingrave, “George”, and Carl Hentschel, “Harris”, (‘J’ in the novel is of course Jerome); the three friends were often out rowing on the Thames. “Montmorency”, the dog, was totally fictional, although Jerome would later say that there was much of himself in the animal.
The truth is that F. W. Robinson, editor for the magazine Home Chimes, asked Jerome to write “the story of the Thames” for his publication. The story should give the readers of the magazine sceneries and the history of the river, dotted with humorous passages. However, the latter took over. At the end, Robinson cut out most of the historical, serious parts and kept the funny parts, and Jerome gave it a new title, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). The episodes were published in Home Chimes from August 1888 to June 1889. In September the same year, the publisher J. W. Arrowsmith in Bristol preserved it between covers, and it became an instantaneous best-seller and a classic.
It is said that twenty years after it was first published, it had sold more than one million copies around the world. Jerome, on the other hand, claimed in an introduction to the second edition, published in 1909, that unauthorized printers had illegally sold one million copies in America alone up to that date. Henry Holt Company in New York published the first American edition in 1890. I have always wondered if my old copy, published by the New York-based company A. L. Burt Co. – without a printing year and any mention that Arthur Frederics was the illustrator – is a “pirate”. Maybe it is. Although there existed a copyright law for authors in the United Kingdom already in 1709, it was first in 1891 that the United States agreed to stop “literary piracy”. Five years later, the American Congress joined the international copyright union. Of course, it is impossible to know how well the American publishers lived up to the copyright agreement regarding British authors. Jerome claimed that he never made a penny from the sales of Three Men in a Boat in the U.S.
After Three Men in a Boat was published, the business of renting out boats along the Thames flourished, and the book made its author financially secure which allowed him to continue to write. Jerome wrote short stories, novels and plays, but he was never able to replicate his success of Three Men in a Boat, not even with the sequel, the novel Three Men on a Bummel (1900) where ‘J’, Harris, and George go on a bicycle trip in Germany. His autobiography My Life and Times was published in 1926, a year before he died. Those interested in Three Men in a Boat, should read Chris Dodd’s five-piece article about the book – see here.
Some ways to measure a book’s success are to see how many copies of the book are sold and how much money the author has made in royalties. Added to this are translations into other languages, and film adaptations, of which there have been a few of Three Men in a Boat for both the big screen and for television. It has been adapted into a musical and into several stage plays. Also, other books have been published which are more or less linked or allude to Jerome’s best-seller, for example Nigel Williams’s Two and a Half Men (1993), a travelogue; Connie Wills’s novel To Say Nothing of the Dog (1999); the Olympic and World rowing champion Tim Foster’s memoirs Four Men in a Boat (2004); John Llewellyn’s Three Men Went to Row (2017), which is a book on facts and fiction behind Jerome’s novel; and Anne Youngson’s novel Three Women in a Boat (2021).
A lesser-known book nowadays is a novel which was published only a couple of years after Jerome’s, Three Women in One Boat – A River Sketch by Constance MacEwen, published in 1891 by F. V. White & Company, London. This is perhaps the first novel which is trying to ride on the success of Jerome’s novel.
Not much is known about the life of the book’s author, Constance Ellen MacEwen. She was born in 1850 in Bath, the daughter of Alan P. and Laura MacEwen. During slightly more than ten years, Constance MacEwen published nine books, eight Victorian “chick lit” novels, or romances, and one children’s book. Her first book Rough Diamonds: or, Sketches from Real Life came out in 1881. The following year she published two books, the children’s book All Among the Fairies and the romance Gin a Body Meet a Body. Being active with her pen, in 1883 MacEwen came out with Miss Beauchamp: A Philistine, which was followed by Not Every Day: A Love Octave (1885), Soap: A Romance (1886), A Cavalier’s Ladye: A Romance of the Isle of Wight in the Seventeenth Century (1889), Three Women in One Boat: A River Sketch (1891) and Mr. Horatio Mandeville’s Experiences: or, The Bachelor (1892).
Although MacEwen’s romances went through several printings, most of her novels were met with bad reviews. Her Soap, which was published by J. W. Arrowsmith who three years later would publish Three Men in a Boat, received praise by some critics. The Literary World called the novel “Decidedly both clever and amusing” and the Sunday newspaper John Bull deemed it “Teems with original thought and purity of style”. But then there were the critical reviews. William Sharp wrote sourly in The Academy (30 October 1886):
Mrs. MacEwen strives to be clever and amusing; but whatever else Soap may be, it is not clever, and it is difficult to imagine anyone being amused by it. It is not so much that it is exceptionally trivial or absurd, as that it is hopelessly, irredeemably dull; and dullness is the unforgivable shortcoming of the would-be writer of amusing fiction.
Six months later, on 2 May 1887, the great Oscar Wilde could find little to praise in her book and put it elegantly in his piece published in the Pall Mall Gazette. Under the title “A Batch of Novels”, he wrote:
The accomplished authoress of Soap was once compared to George Eliot by the Court Journal, and to Carlyle by the Daily News, but we fear that we cannot compete with our contemporaries in these daring comparisons. Her present book is very clever, rather vulgar, and contains some fine examples of bad French.
Three Women in One Boat – A River Sketch is without a doubt a rare book in the true antiquarian sense of the word, as it is almost impossible to find a copy nowadays. Though while writing this, a first edition of the book is available at an antiquarian bookseller in Bath, England. But before you spend the asking price of £950 (US$1,200) read this article and take advantage of the “offer” at the end of the second part to read Three Women in One Boat for free!
Before going into Three Women in One Boat (see Part II), let us look at MacEwen’s family circumstances that probably helped her to write the novel. It also puts a new light on the book.
In 1885, MacEwen married the two-year-younger clergyman Alfred Cecil Dicker in Portsea. What is interesting for us HTBS Types is that Alfred Dicker was one of England’s most prominent scullers during the 1870s.
Alfred, the son of John Campbell and Matilda Anne (Birch) Dicker, was born at St John’s Wood, London, in 1852 and educated at Winchester College. In 1871, he went up to St John’s College in Cambridge and the following year Alfred’s name showed up in the crew lists at Lady Margaret Boat Club. Rowing for Cambridge University Colquhoun Sculls, he won his first heat, but was defeated in the next round. In 1873, he rowed at 5 in the “Maggie’s” second boat at the Lent Races on the Cam, but his name was not in the crews of the eights for the May Races. A good guess would be that Alfred was concentrating on the single sculls at this time as he was entering in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta. The Diamonds in 1873 only had six scullers and Alfred easily advanced to the final where he beat W. Chillingworth of Twickenham RC “by many lengths”. In the final of the Wingfield Sculls, three weeks later, on 16 July, Alfred defeated the holder of the title, Clement Courtenay Knollys of Kingston RC. At Hammersmith Bridge, Alfred led by six lengths. After that, the race was described as “a procession”. Alfred won by 200 yards in the new amateur record time of 24 minutes 23 seconds. In November Alfred easily took The Colquhoun Sculls.
Alfred Dicker was back in his single sculls at Henley Royal in 1874. All four heats, including the final, had three participants in each heat. Reaching the final, Alfred easily took the Diamonds, beating W. Fawcus of Tynemouth RC and J. H. H. Moxon of First Trinity. At Henley that year was also Alfred’s younger brother, Gerald Campbell, who studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and rowed for First Trinity BC in the Grand Challenge Cup and in the Ladies’ Challenge Plate. Trinity lost their first heat in the Grand but won the Ladies’. Earlier in the season, Gerald had rowed in the First Trinity’s eight that took the Head of the River. In the Wingfields that summer, Alfred won the race handily overpowering William Henry Eyre, Thames RC. Alfred did not row for The Colquhoun Sculls but Gerald did, losing to his fellow club member, William B. Close, the youngest of the famous Close brothers.
In the 1875 Boat Race, Gerald rowed at 3 in the Light Blue crew. Unfortunately, a mile into the race disaster struck. In an interview on 5 August 1949, 96-year-old Gerald told BBC’s Boat Race commentator, John Snagge, that the rough water “had a very bad effect on me because it broke down my seat and the sharp point of the broken timber ran into my back”. Cambridge lost by ten boat lengths. Gerald Dicker died a few months after the recording. In an article of 10 March 2017, Tim Koch wrote about the 1875 Boat Race and Gerald Dicker, also mentioning his brother, Alfred. In Tim’s article is the recording that Snagge did with Gerald – a real treasure in the Boat Race lore.
At the 1875 Henley Royal, Alfred, sculling for Cambridge BC, easily beat William Close in the final of the Diamonds. Alfred also rowed in the Molesey BC crew in the Grand. Molesey made it to the final but lost to Leander. In the race for the Wingfields a few weeks later, Alfred, now sculling for “Maggie”, was defeated by Frank L. Playford of London RC. In Michaelmas Term, Gerald rowed with William Close to win the Cambridge University Pairs.
The following year, 1876, Alfred went for the Pineapple Cup at Henley again, winning his first heat but losing his second heat to Playford, who had a length lead when Alfred came too close to the river bank and broke a scull. Alfred also rowed in a Molesey crew at 6 having his brother Gerald in front of him at 7 in the Grand. Molesey lost their first heat to Jesus, Cambridge. This came to be the last appearance at Henley for Alfred and Gerald. Alfred went for the Wingfields again that summer. He lost the initial heat and Playford won the championship title by beating A. V. Frere of Kingston RC.
It should be noted that the Wikipedia article on Alfred Cecil Dicker says that he rowed in the 1876 Boat Race, which he did not. The Wikipedia article refers to an article from 5 March 1876 in The New York Times, which is quoting an article in the Pall Mall Gazette on 16 February about the crews practicing a few weeks before Boat Race Day on 8 April. The article says that Alfred “rows fairly hard, but in a very ugly humped-up form and with little swing”. Find the article here.
With the help of Tim Koch, who found some articles from 1875 and 1876, I discovered that Alfred was in a scratch eight which raced against the Light Blue crew on the Thames in March 1875. In February 1876, Alfred seems to have been a spare as newspapers published articles where his name shows up saying that he was in or out of the Cambridge crew. The Daily News wrote on 2 February 1886: “As far as strength and stamina go a better man could not be found; but Mr. Dicker’s rowing, in point of form, never was good, and to-day it was far from being so.” More critical articles about Alfred’s rowing followed in February and at the end of the month he was out of the crew. He would never get a Blue. Both Dicker brothers would become priests. National Portrait Gallery has photographs of them: Alfred, age 11, and Gerald, age 10. Alfred died in 1938, age 86, and Gerald died in 1949, age 96.
The article will continue tomorrow.