John Kendrick Bangs

John Kendrick Bangs

John Kendrick Bangs was born on May 27th, 1862. John passed away January 21st, 1922 at 59 years old. John Kendrick Bangs was born in Yonkers, New York, USA. Bangs attended Columbia College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, and also attended Columbia Law School.

John Kendrick Bangs was best known for being a satirist, editor, humorist, and author who pioneered the Bangsian Fantasy genre.

He began writing while he was still in college where he contributed to humor magazines to which he sent short anonymous pieces. He also edited Acta Columbia, the literary magazine during his college years. In 1884, John Bangs worked under Edward S. Martin working on Life magazine as an Associate Editor.

In 1888, he quit the magazine as he had been tapped by Harper’s Young People, Harper’s Bazaar, and Harper’s Magazine. John Bangs would rise through the ranks to become Humor editor for all Harper Magazines in addition to editing Harper’s Weekly. He was also the first editor of Munsey’s Magazine, which he edited between January and June 1889.

John Kendrick Bangs quit Harper & Brothers in 1901 and two years later, he was editing the New Metropolitan. Between 1904 and 1906, he edited magazines, even as he also lectured across the United States. As a writer of satire, he was known as a prankster and jokester.

Earlier in 1886, John Kendrick Bangs got married to his first wife Agnes L. Hyde with whom he had three children. He died of stomach cancer aged 59 in New Jersey’s Atlantic City in 1922.

A House-Boat on the Styx was a work that John Bangs published in 1895.

It begins with the ferryman of the boat Charon annoyed and startled when a mysterious houseboat appears on his mystical river. He is initially afraid of being run out of business, only to learn that he will be made the janitor on the boat. What follows is a bunch of tales on the boat with each featuring a variety of souls from mythology and ancient history.

Following on from the events of his 1895 published novel, Bangs published The Pursuit of the House-Boat in 1897. The boat had been hijacked by Captain Kidd at the end of the previous novel and the club members are now hoping to track it down with the help of a detective. Sherlock Holmes is the man hired to do the job even though it has been a long time since he died.

John Kendrick Bangs: Lists & Other Mentions

• A House-Boat on the Styx: Publishers Weekly: Bestselling Novel in the United States in 1896.
• The Pursuit of the House-Boat: Publishers Weekly: Bestselling Novel in the United States in 1897.

Related Authors

Readers who follow John Kendrick Bangs also follow these authors:

1. Dean Koontz, author of the Odd Thomas Series.
2. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
3. Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher Series.
4. Agatha Christie, author of: And Then There Were None / Ten Little Indians / Ten Little N******.
5. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale Series.

John Kendrick Bangs: F.A.Q