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By: John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922)

Alice in Blunderland: an Iridescent Dream by John Kendrick Bangs Alice in Blunderland: an Iridescent Dream

John Kendrick Bangs (May 27, 1862 – January 21, 1922) was an American author and satirist, and the creator of modern Bangasian Fantasy, the school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife. (Wikipedia)Plot summary: J K Bangs has taken Alice from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and lets her on a boring day travel with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat and the other of Carroll’s familiar characters to Blunderland. The story is a well written Satire, a witty, humorous tale of adventure and city politics, a tale of Alice in a land where nothing is as it should be. (Summary by Lars Rolander)

The Idiot by John Kendrick Bangs The Idiot

The Idiot is anything but, yet his fellow boarders at Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog’s home for single gentlemen see him as such. His brand of creative thought is dismissed as foolishness yet it continues to get under their skin, because when you’re beneath contempt you can say what you please. – This is the first of John Kendrick Bangs' “Idiot” books and was published by Harper and Brothers in 1895.

A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs A House-Boat on the Styx

The premise of the book is that everyone who has ever died (up until the time in which the book is set, which seems to be about the time of its publication) has gone to Styx. This does not appear to be the conventional Hell described by Dante in The Inferno, but rather the Hades described in Greek myth (both of which had Styxes): a universal collecting pot for dead souls, regardless of their deeds in life. The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx (in The Inferno, he was the ferryman of the river Acheron) being startled—and annoyed—by the arrival of a house boat on the Styx...

The Inventions of the Idiot by John Kendrick Bangs The Inventions of the Idiot

"It was before the Idiot's marriage, and in the days when he was nothing more than a plain boarder in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog's High-class Home for Single Gentlemen, that he put what the School-master termed his "alleged mind" on plans for the amelioration of the condition of the civilized." This humorous story by the editor of Puck magazine describes how the Idiot sets out to improve the lot of civilized man through his inventions - the lot of barbarian man already being well tended to by missionaries and other do-gooders.

The Autobiography of Methuselah by John Kendrick Bangs The Autobiography of Methuselah

A satirical look at early biblical events from the point of view of someone who was there to witness most of them: the oldest man in recorded history.

Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others by John Kendrick Bangs Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others

New York-born John Kendrick Bangs was associate editor and then editor of Life and Harper magazines, eventually finding his way into the Humour department. Here he began to write his own satire and humour. Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others is a delightfully humourous collection of short tales relating encounters with ghosts.

Coffee and Repartee by John Kendrick Bangs Coffee and Repartee

First released in 1893, Coffee And Repartee is a collection of breakfast chats at a gentlemans boarding house run by a Mrs. Smithers. Here these fellows repeatedly face questions and proclamations by an inhabitant they call The Idiot. The discussions sound friendly under pretense, but are really sly battles of ribald wit and cunning charm, as well as rather offensive remarks during a time period considered by many to favour a height of refined etiquette. The Idiot spars well, but will the other residents get the better of him?

A Little Book Of Christmas by John Kendrick Bangs A Little Book Of Christmas

Summary: Four short Christmas stories, a bit sentimental, but still affecting and worthwhile. Plus Four Christmas verses. (Summary by David Wales)

The Pursuit of the House-Boat by John Kendrick Bangs The Pursuit of the House-Boat

This sequel to Bangs' A House-Boat on the Styx continues the "thought-experiment" of bringing various historical and fictional figures together, detailing the adventures of the ladies of Hades after they are kidnapped by pirates and the attempts of the Associated Shades (led by Sherlock Holmes) to retrieve their house-boat. (Introduction by Emma Joyce)

Book cover R. Holmes and Co.

Raffles Holmes is introduced in these stories as the son of the great Sherlock Holmes. He is also revealed to be the grandson of A.J. Raffles, a gentleman thief pursued by Sherlock Holmes many years earlier. This apparently contradictory family background sets the stage for his colorful and amusing adventures.

Book cover The Pursuit of the House-Boat Being Some Further Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades, under the Leadership of Sherlock Holmes, Esq.
Book cover The Bicyclers and Three Other Farces
Mr Munchausen by John Kendrick Bangs Mr Munchausen

The author has discovered for us in this volume the present stopping place of that famous raconteur of dear comic memory, the late Hieronymous Carl Friederich, sometime Baron Munchausen, and he transmits to us some further adventures of this traveler and veracious relator of merry tales. There are about a dozen of these tales, and, judging by Mr. Bangs' recital of them, the Baron's adventures on this mundane sphere were no more exciting than those he has encountered since taking the ferry across the Styx...

The Dreamers A Club by John Kendrick Bangs The Dreamers A Club
Book cover Over The Plum Pudding

Great Caesar’s ghost and shades of A Christmas Carol! Stories – some ghostly, some Christmas, some humorous, some all three -- twelve of them by a master story teller and humorist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Book cover Olympian Nights
Book cover Enchanted Typewriter

The Enchanted Typewriter is a collection of short stories by the American author John Kendrick Bangs, written in 1899 in the style that has become known as Bangsian fantasy. Bangs attributes many of the stories to the late (and invisible) James Boswell, who has become an editor for a newspaper in Hades, and who communicates with the author by means of an old typewriter. The fantasy stories in this book are part of the author's Hades series, named for the stories' setting.

Book cover Paste Jewels
Book cover Mrs. Raffles

Mrs. Raffles, widow of the now deceased A. J. Raffles (who was the gentleman thief pursued at one time by Sherlock Holmes), continues the family legacy of crime—but this time in America. These stories are narrated by her cohort, Harry “Bunny” Manders, previously the devoted friend and sidekick of A.J. Raffles before his death.

Genial Idiot by John Kendrick Bangs Genial Idiot

John Kendrick Bangs once again takes us on a journey with the loveable, but somewhat self-opinionated and irritating Mr Idiot.

Book cover Water Ghost and Others

Eight ghost stories by a master story teller and humorist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Book cover Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica
In Camp With A Tin Soldier by John Kendrick Bangs In Camp With A Tin Soldier
Book cover Jack and the Check Book

Bangs is in top form in his version of this small collection of timeless fairy tales. If you don't immediately recognize Jack and the Check Book, Puss, the Promoter, and the Golden Fleece, don't worry, you soon will.

Book cover A Rebellious Heroine
Toppleton's Client by John Kendrick Bangs Toppleton's Client

A pre-eminent legal firm gets far more than it bargained for when it hires the son of its late senior partner, Hopkins Toppleton, Sr., simply to retain the illustrious family name on the company masthead. Knowing Jr. is a loose cannon, their strategy is to pack him off to the UK to head up a European branch of the firm - a branch they have no intention of sending work. The unwitting Hopkins Toppleton, Jr. is, however, determined to make his mark.

A Proposal Under Difficulties A Farce by John Kendrick Bangs A Proposal Under Difficulties A Farce
Book cover The Booming of Acre Hill And Other Reminiscences of Urban and Suburban Life
Book cover Hallowe'en

volunteers bring you 21 recordings of Hallowe'en by John Kendrick Bangs. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 24, 2021. ------ This Halloween Poem by J K Bangs appeared in Harper's Weekly, Nov. 5, 1910. - Summary by David Lawrence

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - December

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of December. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - November

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of November. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - October

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of October. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - September

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of September. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - August

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of August. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - July

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of July. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - June

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of June. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - May

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of May. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - April

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of April. - Summary

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - March

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of March. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - February

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of February. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Cheery Way, a Bit of Verse for Every Day - January

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of January. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Peeps at People - Being Certain Papers from the Writings of Anne Warrington Witherup (Dramatic Reading)

Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." This version has been read as full cast dramatic reading. -- Summary by TriciaG and from the book...

Book cover Peeps at People - Being Certain Papers from the Writings of Anne Warrington Witherup

Written by a fictitious first-person narrator, this book puts a humorous spin on encounters with several famous people of the time. "I set forth from my office in London upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these people I was commissioned to go." -- Summary by TriciaG and from the book.

Book cover Songs of Cheer

This is a volume of poetry by John Kendrick Bangs. All the poems in this volume share the very positive tone, they discuss happiness, love, and friendship, and can be enjoyed by children as well as adults. - Summary by Carolin

Book cover Idiot at home

The Idiot returns along with Ms Idiot and their two children, Mollie and Tommy, move into their first house in suburbia. What follows are encounters with his companions from his boarding house days, Coffee and Repartee, along with new characters that inhabit suburbia with the unassailable logic of the Idiot and Mrs Idiot regarding various aspects of life in the suburbs, starting with why the knowledge of an egg beater is more important than that of Wagner. Which story is your favourite?


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