The Joy of Being

Whither my road is leading me 

Perhaps I do not know;

But oh, the path is fair to me,

And sweet the winds that blow!

In sun or storm, by day or night,

If skies are lowering or bright,

The highroad holds so much delight,

I run with heart aglow.

The lanes may thorny be, and lead

To steps heart-breaking high;

The forests wild with bush and weed

My strength may mortify;

Yet, with resolve to do and dare,

I hold within my soul small care

For hazards spread o’er pathways where

The goals worth winning are.

It is enough to live and plan,

To joy in earth and sea;

To do what things a mortal can

With spirit blithe and free;

To prove one’s strength of soul, will

To meet and overcome the ill,

And in the end to gain the thrill

Of manful mastery!

-       John Kendrick Bangs[1]

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[1] John Kendrick Bangs was born in Yonkers, New York in 1862. His father, Francis Nehemiah Bangs was one of the most prominent lawyers in New York. His mother was Frances Amelia Bull. In 1879 John entered Columbia University and wrote under pseudonyms for the Acta Columbiana, for which he was the editor from 1882 to 1883. He earned a degree in Political Science and went to work in his father’s law office. He entered Columbia Law School, but dropped out as his desire for literature overpowered his plans for a legal profession. He got a job as an associate editor at Life magazine and had some of his sketches published in Puck and Life.

John married his first cousin, Agnes Lawson Hyde in 1886. They had four children together. In 1887, John went abroad, and during this absence from editorial work at Life magazine, he published his first book. In 1888, he left Life to work for Harper’s Magazine. In the following years, Bangs proved himself to be a successful humorist, essayist and lecturer. In 1894 he was nominated by the Democrats for Mayor of Yonkers. He lost, but his victorious rival offered him a position in his administration on the Board of Education and he accepted. His wife, Agnes, died in 1903; he then married Mary Gray. In 1907, they moved to Ogunquit, Maine. Bangs died in 1922 at the age fifty-nine.

Bangs’ more notable works were his supernatural fictions based on humorous rather than terrifying ghosts. He was the creator of modern Bangsian fantasy, which is a school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife.