John Kendrick Bangs
John Kendrick Bangs was an American author and satirist born on May 27, 1862, in Yonkers, New York. He developed an early passion for theater and humor, which led him to Columbia University, where he became the editor of the Columbia Jester. After graduating in 1883, Bangs worked as an associate editor for Life magazine, contributing poetry and humorous essays that highlighted his wit. He later joined Harper's, serving as humor editor for several publications and ultimately editing Harper's Weekly until 1901.
Bangs is notable for creating the genre known as "Bangsian fantasy," which explores the afterlife through whimsical narratives involving famous deceased figures. His works, such as "A House-Boat on the Styx" and its sequel, cleverly placed these characters in amusing scenarios. In addition, he introduced recurring characters like Raffles Holmes and The Idiot. Following personal tragedy, Bangs transitioned to a successful career as a lecturer and speaker. He spent his later years in Ogunquit, Maine, where he passed away in 1922 at the age of fifty-nine. Bangs's literary contributions continue to influence the genre of humorous and fantastical fiction.
On this Page
Subject Terms
John Kendrick Bangs
Writer
- Born: May 27, 1862
- Birthplace: Yonkers, New York
- Died: January 21, 1922
- Place of death: Ogunquit, Maine
Biography
John Kendrick Bangs was born May 27, 1862, in Yonkers, New York. Growing up a short train ride from New York City, where his father had a law practice, Bangs developed early a taste for Broadway’s burgeoning musical theater. When he matriculated to Columbia University in 1880, Bangs joined the staff of the Columbia Jester, where he wrote popular satirical and humorous pieces. He soon became the journal’s editor. Upon graduation in 1883, Bangs enrolled in Columbia’s law school, but he left the following year to become associate editor of Life magazine. Life was not yet the news and feature magazine it would later become; instead, it was a highbrow humor magazine on the model of the British Punch. Bangs wrote a great deal of poetry and humorous essays for Life over the next four years, and he was able to collect much of it in volumes of verse and essays.
In 1888 Bangs moved over to Harper’s, where he became humor editor for three successful magazines, Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, and Harper’s Young People. The following year he took over as editor of Harper’s Weekly, a position in which he remained until 1901. Bangs’s exploration of the legendary demon Mephistopheles in Mephistopheles: A Profanation led him to develop a species of fiction about the afterlife which came to be called “Bangsian fantasy.” His first book of this type of supernatural fiction, A House- Boat on the Styx, appeared in 1895. Its popularity demanded a sequel, and Bangs obliged with In Pursuit of the House- Boat (1897). In the House-Boat series, Charon, the traditional ferry pilot on the River Styx in the underworld of Greek mythology, is irritated to find another craft on “his” river. This craft carries famous people who have passed away but who want to spend the afterlife on a pleasure cruise rather than in torment. This device allowed Bangs to use any deceased celebrity, and some famous literary personas, as characters of his own, and he placed them in delightful situations. Many other writers of the time imitated the genre, and later works—including Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series in the 1970’s—kept it alive. Another popular series by Bangs involved Raffles Holmes, supposedly the son of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, and the grandson of the great jewel thief A.J. Raffles. His recurring character, The Idiot, appeared in five book-length collections between 1895 and 1917.
With the death of his wife, Agnes Hyde Bangs, in 1903, Bangs abandoned the New York publishing scene and toured the country on the popular-lecture circuit. He developed a successful second career as an after-dinner speaker. He remarried, and moved with his wife, Mary Gray Bangs, to Ogunquit, Maine, where he died in 1922 at the age of fifty-nine.