This is a collection of Mr. Bang. Jeong-Hwan’s seven works that were written and published first in the 1920s to 1930s in Korea.
The author seemed to draw one specific image through those main characters in his stories to encourage children who had to live life in the difficult period and to let them have a role model. Especially, these seven works chosen here are obviously expected to reveal the image clearly. Almost all the main characters never lost their pure dignity as little human beings under such a horrible situation. Those young hearts took courage to break through all the hardships, and eventually they found happiness.
Jeong-Hwan, Bang (1899~1931):
He was born in Seoul in 1899 as a first child and the only son of a big family. When he was nine years old, his great-grandfather’s business went bankrupt, so he began to be in poverty and hungry. He used to gather his peers living in neighborhood and enjoy storytelling and having some discussion together in his childhood. As his father got a job, he could graduate a primary school in 1913 and began to study further in a commercial school. However, he had to quit the school just before one year left for graduation in order to support his family’s living. He got a job as a copyist in Land Investigation National Corporation and he kept focusing on reading in his spare time.
At the age of 17, he got married to the third daughter of Mr. Byong-Hi, Son who was the leader of Cheondoism and he began a youth movement. He mostly wrote and made a speech in public to encourage young adults and to emphasize the importance of them. He began to use the Korean word ‘Eorini’, a child in English, in 1920 and moved to Tokyo to carry out as a leader of Cheondoism Youth Association Tokyo branch and a special correspondent for the magazine ‘Gaebyeok’. In 1922, he established the Children’s Day to celebrate one year anniversary of Cheondoism Children’s Association and in 1923, he founded the Rainbow Society to research children’s problems.
Until he died in 1931, he had written many stories, translated good foreign stories into Korean, established a children’s magazine and performed storytelling for children. He used to use different pen names whenever writing for a magazine to avoid censorship by a usurper. He liked smoking and loved having bingsu.