Bangs, J[ohn] K[endrick]

1862 - 1922

American magazine editor and prolific writer of poetry, fiction, drama, and children's literature. According to E. F. Bleiler, "Bang's most noteworthy achievement was a contribution to literary typology: the so-called Bangsian story, in which important literary and historical personalities serve humorously as characters in a slender plot line. Bangs did not invent this subgenre, but his work gave it publicity and literary status" (Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 25).

Sites:
brief discussions of Bangs
Part of the "Art Nouveau Gallery of Ghosts" page at Jessica Amanda Salmonson's wonderful Violet Books site
bibliography, with photo [FantasticFiction]


Etexts:
"The Amalgamated Brotherhood of Spooks" [Amalgamated Brotherood of Spooks]
"Carleton Barker, First And Second"
A doppelgänger story first published in the October 1893 issue of Scribner's Magazine
- at the Making of America project this link opens a new window
- at Amalgamated Brotherhood of Spooks (10K)
The Enchanted Typewriter (175K)
"The Ghost Club" [HorrorMasters]
A Houseboat on the Styx
- at Project Gutenberg  (170K)
- at Fiction Archive  (ToC)
"The Literary Remains of Thomas Bragdon" [Horrormasters]
"A Midnight Visitor" [HorrorMasters]
The Pursuit of the Houseboat (206K0 [Project Gutenberg]
Like the 2 (related) "houseboat" stories linked just above, this is one of those "Bangsian" works of ghostly goofiness mentioned by Bleiler. [Project Gutenberg]
"A Psychical Prank" [HorrorMasters]
"A Quicksilver Cassandra" [HorrorMasters]
"The Speck on the Lens" [HorrorMasters]
"The Spectre Cook of Bangletop" [Horrormasters]
"Thurlow's Christmas Story" [HorrorMasters]
"The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall"
- at Amalgamated Brotherhood of Spooks (10K)
- at HorrorMasters [PDF]