John Kendrick Bangs published his book A House-Boat on the Styx in 1895. In it, Charon, the main character, learns that he has been selected to serve as the Styx, the river that circles the underworld, cleaner. The advent of a houseboat on the River Styx startles and irritates Charon at the start of the novel.The next eleven stories (for a total of twelve) are all set on the house boat. There is no central theme, and the reason the book has all the earmarks of being a scholarly psychological study. Each chapter is a brief story about a different soul from mythology and history. The Pursuit of the House-Boat, the sequel, begins when the house boat vanishes.There don't seem to be any original fictitious characters in A House-Boat on the Styx. All have been borrowed, in varying degrees, from mythology or history.Throughout the book, there is a running joke that claims Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others ghostwrote Shakespeare's plays instead of him.
John Kendrick Bangs was an American writer, humorist, editor, and satirist who lived from May 27, 1862, to January 21, 1922. Yonkers, New York, is where he was born. Francis S. Bangs and his brother Francis N. Bangs worked as a lawyer in New York City. Bangs earned a Bachelor of Philosophy in Political Science from Columbia College in 1883. He edited the literary journal Acta Columbia at Columbia and wrote brief, anonymous pieces for humor magazines. Bangs also briefly held the position of Munsey's Magazine's first editor. Bangs unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Yonkers, New York, in 1894. He delivered a speech in 1918 to YMCA members and allied soldiers on the front lines in France. He was well-known in the "Profile Cottage" circles as a jokester and prankster in addition to being a sarcastic author. In 1901, he departed Harper & Brothers, and in 1903, he was appointed editor of the New Metropolitan publication. He was named editor of Puck in 1904, which was maybe the best American humor publication at the time. He shifted his attention to the lecture circuit in 1906. At the age of 59, he passed away from stomach cancer in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
