Russell Banks: A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

The literary papers of American writer Russell Banks span a forty-year career from the early 1960s to 2001. The collection includes material for his novels and collected short stories, from notes and drafts of works to publication material and reviews. Also present are shorter works, such as articles and essays, introductions, plays, poems, reviews, and short stories. The papers contain extensive correspondence, as well as articles about Banks, biographical information, diary notes, contracts, published material, and works by others.

The papers are arranged in four series: I. Works; II. Correspondence; III. Other Papers; and IV. Published Material.

Series I is comprised of book-length works, in Subseries A, while shorter works are found in Subseries B. This material is arranged alphabetically by title. Banks's published novels include Affliction, The Book of Jamaica, Cloudsplitter, Continental Drift, Family Life, Hamilton Stark, The Relation of My Imprisonment, Rule of the Bone, and The Sweet Hereafter. Also present are typescript drafts of Banks's unpublished first novel, The Locus. Two of his novels were subsequently adapted to the screen in 1997: Affliction, directed by Paul Schrader, and The Sweet Hereafter, directed by Atom Egoyan. Short story collections include The Angel on the Roof, The New World, Searching for Survivors, Success Stories, and Trailerpark. Also present are text and photographs for The Invisible Stranger, a collaboration with photographer Arturo Patten.

The shorter works in Subseries B include articles for magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, The New Republic, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. Article topics cover a wide range of people and places from the Adirondacks, Edinburgh, Seychelles, and the Everglades to Eudora Welty, Billie Holiday, Paul Strand, and Raymond Carver. Banks wrote introductions to works by Nelson Algren, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frank O'Connor, Michael Rumaker, and Mark Twain. Plays, poems, research material for various projects, reviews, and short stories are also included in this subseries.

The correspondence in Series II is organized in three subseries: A. Chronological; B. Individual Correspondents; and C. Career-Related. While Banks kept his correspondence primarily in date order, frequent correspondents were identified separately and housed apart from the chronological files, although there is some crossover between the two. Letters from Bill Corbett, Clarence Major, William Matthews, Joyce Carol Oates, Leon Rooke, Charles Simic, Jonathan Williams, and Arthur Yanoff are particularly numerous. The career-related files found in Subseries C reflect Banks's involvement with the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, the Princeton Writing Program, and the publications Lillabulero and Ploughshares. Files relating to academic appointments, publishing, requests for literary engagements, editorial and writing projects, and readings are also found in this subseries.

The material in Series III Other Papers provides additional information about Banks in the form of articles about him, an autobiographical piece for Contemporary Authors, and a diary written between September 1978 and March 1984. Publishing contracts, interviews, and works by Jane Anderson, Ray Buck, and Brad Mirman are also present.

Numerous articles by and about Banks, excerpts from novels, interviews, reviews, and stories published in literary and popular magazines are found in Series IV Published Material. This material is arranged alphabetically by the title of the periodical, and indexed by title in the Index to Published Material. In cases where both a manuscript and published version exist for the same work, the published version is filed with the manuscript.

The material is in good condition, except for several items in the Hamilton Stark section that are mold-damaged.

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Separated Material

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Folder List

Index to Published Material

About the Late Zimma (Penny) Cate: Selections from Her Loving Husband's Memory Hoard. TriQuarterly, vol. 40, Fall 1977, p.178--Box 21.7
The Actor. The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, June 12, 1994, p.14--Box 38.10
The Adjutant Bird. Lillabulero, vol. 1, no. 4, Fall 1967, p.7--Box 74
Adultery. Mother Jones, vol. 11, no. 3, April-May 1986, p.29--Box 25.7
The Advertisement. Emerson Review, Winter 1975-76, p.65--Box 80
Affliction [excerpt]. Ontario Review, no. 31, Fall-Winter 1989-90, p.7--Box 87
Affliction [excerpt]. Fiction, vol. 9, no. 1, 1988, p.72--Box 81
Affliction [excerpt]. New Virginia Review, vol. 7, November 1989, p.130--Box 86
The Art of Fiction CLII. The Paris Review, vol. 40, no. 147, Summer 1998, p.50--Box 87
The Best Man. La Huerta, vol. 1, no. 1, 1971, np--Box 83
A Bidder in Plato's Cave. Yahoo!: Internet Life, vol. 7, no. 9, September 2001, p.133--Box 93
Birds, Water & the Sun; On Stumbling across Barnstead, New Hampshire, Where I was Raised. Latitudes, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1968, p.35--Box 83
Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat. Mississippi Review, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring/Summer 1981, p.42--Box 85
The Blizzard. The Boston Phoenix; Christmas Supplement, Dec. 10, 1974, p.23--Box 78
The Blizzard. Partisan Review, vol. 37, no. 4, 1970, p.530--Box 87
Bodies in the Basement. Brick; A Literary Journal, no. 65/66, Fall 2000, p.52--Box 78
Border Country [review of Louise Erdrich, The Beet Queen]. The Nation, vol. 243, no. 14, Nov. 1, 1986, p.460--Box 85
La Boussole de Russell Banks. Interview with Marc Weitzmann. Autodafe, no. 1, Automne 2000, p.93--Box 76
La Brújula de Russell Banks. Interview with Marc Weitzmann. Autodafe, no. 1, Otoño 2000, p.97--Box 76
The Burden. Ploughshares, vol. 7, no. 1, 1981, p.72--Box 88
A Bússola de Russell Banks. Interview with Marc Weitzmann. Autodafe, no. 1, Outono 2001, p.93--Box 77
La Bussola di Russell Banks. Interview with Marc Weitzmann. Autodafe, no. 1, Autunno 2000, p.91--Box 76
De Camino al Cine [on Jack Kerouac, 1922-1969]. Cambio, vol. 1, no. 4, July 2001, p.101--Box 78
The Candidates. The Abraxas/Five Anthology, James Bertolino, ed., 1972--Box 76
Captions/Announcing and Accounting for Another Happy Marriage. Sun & Moon, Nos. 6/7, 1978-79, Winter, p.27--Box 26.1
Caribbean Compass. Condé Nast Traveler, October 1989, p.124--Box 33.1
The Caul. Mississippi Review, vol. 7, no. 2, Spring 1978, p.129--Box 85
The Child Screams and Looks Back at You. Fiction, vol. 6, no. 3, 1981, p.196--Box 31.6
Children's Story. Quarterly West, no. 7, Autumn 1978, p.116--Box 26.2
Choking, p.54; and Order, p.57. Emerson Review, Winter 1971--Box 80
A Circle of Clowns. The Carolina Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 1, Fall 1965, p.65--Box 79
Coffee Break, 8 May 1967; The Exile; Of Adam, His Fall, & Certain Implications: A Love Poem. Folio, vol. 4, no. 1, March 1968, p. 38-39--Box 82
Collision. Latitudes, vol. 2, no. 2, 1968, p.2--Box 83
Coming of the Crow [poem]. The De Paul Literary Magazine, vol. 2, no. 1, Winter 1963, p.22--Box 80
The Conversion. Shenandoah, vol. 29, no. 1, Fall 1977, p.3--Box 90
Cow-Cow. Gentlemen's Quarterly, April 2000, p.148--Box 82
The Custodian. New Boston Review, vol. 2, no. 1, Summer 1976, p.26--Box 86
The Defenseman. Fire Exit, vol. 4, 1974, np--Box 82
Demolition Derby. Adirondack Life, vol. 22, no. 6, Sept.-Oct. 1991, p.40-- Box 76
Departing from Albania. The Young Writer at Chapel Hill, no. 6, Spring 1967, p.28--Box 93
Djinn. Esquire, vol. 133, no. 6, June 2000, p.144--Box 81
Doctor Wickshaw, Ellery Queen, Dec.1987, p.98--Box 80
Dolores Driscoll; A Chapter from The Sweet Hereafter, the new novel by Russell Banks. The North American Review, vol. 276, no. 3, Sept.- Nov.1991, p.17--Box 86
The Drive Home. New American Review, vol. 4, August 1968, p.66--Box 85
Endless Caribbean, p.81; and Contributors: In Search of Paradise, p.26. Condé Nast Traveler, Bonus Issue 1991, Island Finder--Box 79
Escaping Christmas. The Iowa Review, vol. 8, no. 1, Winter 1977, p.47--Box 83
A Few Thoughts on John Berger. Pequod, vol. 32, 1991, p.146--Box 88
Firewood. Chicago, vol. 35, no. 11, November 1986, p.184--Box 26.3
The Fish. The Agni Review, vol. 23, 1986, p.8--Box 26.4
Five Poems: Death Wish; In Honor of Greed, Diane Wakoski's Long Poem; Stopping en Route; Anticipation; The Crossing Back. Sumac, vol. 3, no. 1, Fall 1970, p.87-90--Box 90
For a symposium on 'The contemporary short story: The last decade,' Granite, no. 5, Spring 1973, p.140--Box 83
Formulations (II) and Formulations (III). Lillabulero, no. 10/11, series 2, 1971, p.96--Box 84
Formulations, p.64; Fiction from the Small Presses, p.85. Lillabulero, no. 9, Summer/Fall 1970--Box 83
Four Poems: Mount Osceola, New Hampshire; Thunderhead Mountain, North Carolina; Clingman's Dome, Tennessee; Mount Shuckstack, North Carolina. Sumac, vol. 2, no. 2 & 3, Winter/Spring 1970, p.79-81--Box 90
Fox and Whale, Priest and Angel. Esquire, vol. 134, no. 5, Nov. 2000, p.113--Box 80
From the Editors. Lillabulero, no. 14, 1974--Box 84
Le Goulet. Le Serpent a Plumes, vol. 15, Spring 1992, p.19--Box 83
A Hazugság. Nagy Világ, vol. 27, no. 10, October 1982, p.1455--Box 85
Homage to Ché Guevara. Kumquat, vol. 2, 1968, np--Box 83
Hommage a Lydie Madelaine (The Grandmother Poem), p.5; and RB reviews two books, p.80. Lillabulero, no. 7, 1969--Box 83
Hostage. Esquire, vol. 105, no. 4, April 1986, p.193--Box 26.6
I Spotted Grandpa's Watch… The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 8, 1995, p.67--Box 74
In the Pemigewasset. Sumac, vol. 3, no. 3, Spring 1971, p.121--Box 91
Indisposed. Matrix: New Canadian Writing, no. 6/7, 1978--Box 22.3
Interview by Rob Trucks. Glimmer Train, no. 32, Fall 1999, p.18--Box 82
An Interview with Russell Banks by Julie Checkoway and English 479. AWP Chronicle, vol. 28, no. 6, May/Summer 1996, p.1--Box 78
An Interview with Russell Banks; Interviewer: Chad Trevitte. The Carolina Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3, Spring 2000, p.103--Box 79
Interview, p.6; Cloudsplitter [excerpt], p.12, Meridian, Premiere Issue, Spring 1998--Box 84
Introduction, p.3; Waiting to Freeze, p.23; from The Poem of the Year of the Bear, p.24; Early Snow, p.26; On Acquiring Riches, p.27; Homage to Ché Guevara, p.28. The Quest, vol. 30/6, 1969--Box 89
Iron Horses [excerpt from Rule of the Bone]. Gentlemen's Quarterly, vol. 74, August 1995, p.65--Box 82
Itchy Feet and Pencils: A Symposium. The New York Times Book Review, Aug. 18, 1991, p.1--Box 86
John Brown's Body: James Baldwin and Frank Shatz in conversation. Transition, vol. 9, no. 1/2; issue 81/82, 2000, p.250--Box 92
Jonathan Williams: His Virtue. Truck, vol. 21, 1979, np--Box 92
Journey; On the Birth of a Daughter; Stasis [poems]. Café Solo, no. 4, Fall 1972, p.31--Box 78
Krump Pays through the Nose, and Yet Comes Back for More. Dust, vol. 4, no. 1, Summer 1969, p.29--Box 80
The Last Birds of Paradise. Condé Nast Traveler, Sept. 1991, p.104--Box 79
The Last Time I Visited My Mother. Pocket Pal, vol. 1/1, Spring 1975, p.35--Box 89
The Lie. Fiction International, no. 2/3, 1974, p.93--Box 81
Lillabulero, [edited by RB], vol. 1, no. 1, Winter 1967--Box 74
Lillabulero, [edited by RB], vol. 1, no. 2, Spring 1967--Box 74
Lillabulero, [edited by RB], vol. 1, no. 5, Summer 1967--Box 74
Lillabulero Press, Inc.: Some Thoughts on Being a 'Small Press' Publisher. Works, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1969, p.72--Box 93
Limits of Law: Litigation, Lawyers and the Search for Justice in Russell Banks' The Sweet Hereafter, by Margaret J. Fried and Lawerence A. Frolik. Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring/Summer 1995, p.1--Box 79
Lobster Night. Esquire, vol. 113, no. 3, March 2000, p.226--Box 81
Losing It at the Movies: A Conversation between Rick Moody and Russell Banks. Black Book, Dec.-Feb. 1998/99, p.145--Box 78
Love Poem. Font, vol. 1, no. 1, p.6--Box 82
Love Poem at Three A.M.; Suicide: Problematic Aspects. Kumquat, vol. 1, 1967, np--Box 83
The Loyalty Oath, p.71; Poem from the Family of Numbers, p.84, Granite, no. 4, Autumn 1972-1973--Box 37.2
Lyman Burdette's Hegira, p.14; review, p.68, Lillabulero, vol. 2, no. 6, 1968, Fall/Winter--Box 22.2
Mapping the Imagination: A Profile of Russell Banks by Christine Benvenuto. Poets & Writers, vol. 26, issue 2, March/April 1998, p.21--Box 89
Mistake. Fiction, vol. 7, no. 3 & vol. 8, no. 1, 1985, p.122--Box 26.7
Mistake. Harper's, vol. 272, no. 1632, May 1986, p.35--Box 26.7
The Moor. Conjunctions, vol. 34, Spring 2000, p.441--Box 80
Musgrave's Book [excerpt]. Ann Arbor Review, no. 5/6, 1969, p.42-- Box 76
My Car Story. Esquire, vol. 130, no. 4, October 1998, p.134--Box 81
My Mother's Memoirs, My Father's Lie, and Other True Stories. Vanity Fair, vol. 49, no. 6, June 1986, p.96--Box 27.1
My Name is Legion. The Carolina Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 1968, p.23--Box 79
My Passion. Gentlemen's Quarterly, January 2001, p.136--Box 82
The Myth of Billie Holiday. Transition: An International Review, vol. 57, 1992, p.88--Box 33.4
The Neighbor. Fiction, vol. 2, no. 2, 1973, p.28--Box 81
The New World. Ploughshares, vol. 3, no. 2, 1976, p.8--Box 22.4
No, But I Saw the Movie. Tin House Magazine, vol. 2, no. 2, Winter 2001, p.10--Box 91
Of Rain (A Song) and Postlude. Pebble, vol. 1, no. 1, Autumn 1968, np--Box 87
On Jerry Bumpus, p.44; On Margaret Randall, p.45, Lillabulero, vol. 2, no. 1, Winter 1968--Box 74
On Reading Local History. Yankee, vol. 33, no. 5, May 1969, p.180--Box 93
On the Poetry of Dave Kelly. Westigan Review, vol. 1, no. 3, 1970, p.23--Box 93
The Outer Banks. Esquire, vol. 135, no. 6, June 2001, p.149--Box 80
The Peak of My Desire. Condé Nast Traveler, November 1997, p.152--Box 79
Plains of Abraham. Esquire, vol. 132, no. 1, July 1999, p.78--Box 81
The Poem of the Year of the Bear [excerpt]. Pebble, vol. 1, no. 2, Spring 1969, np--Box 87
Poems: Up Late, Alone; To Otto Rank, in Heaven; Getting There; Goodnight; The Risk; After a Change in the Weather; March 7, 1970--Solar Eclipse; After a Friend's 39th Birthday Dinner. Tennessee Poetry Journal, vol. 3, no. 3, Spring 1970, p.13-17--Box 91
The Poetry of Digression. Tennessee Poetry Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, Fall 1968, p.23--Box 91
Politics. Shenandoah, vol. 31. no. 4, 1980, p.3--Box 90
Presentación [introduction]. Autodafe, no. 2, Otoño 2001, p.6--Box 78
Présentation [introduction]. Autodafe, no. 2, Automne 2001, p.6--Box 77
Prisoners. Antaeus, vol. 28, Winter 1978, p.101--Box 40.1
The Purchase [poem]. Cottonwood Review, 1968--Box 80
Purgatory. Fiction, vol. 5, no. 2 & 3, 1978, p.190--Box 22.6
Quality Time. Ploughshares, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2000, p.14--Box 89
The Real Story: Literary Fact and Fiction. PEN America, vol. 1, no. 1, Winter 2000/01, p.115--Box 88
Red Rover, excerpt from Rule of the Bone. Columbia; A Magazine of Poetry and Prose no. 24/25, 1995, p.40--Box 79
Reinventing Realism: An Interview with Russell Banks by J. J. Wylie. Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 39, no. 4, Fall 2000, p. 737--Box 84
The Relation of My Imprisonment, [excerpts]. United Artists, vol. 10-13, April 1980-April 1981--Box 92
Remember Me to Camelot: A novel written by Naomi Ruth Sunder, a character in the novel Family Life. TriQuarterly, vol. 34, Fall 1975, p.139--Box 92
The Renunciation. Thicket, vol. 1, no. 3, 1978, p.41--Box 40.3
[Reviews]. Lillabulero, no. 8, Winter 1970: Edward Dorn, Gunslinger, Book II, p.82; and Robert Creeley, Pieces, p.88--Box 84
The Right Way. The Boston Globe Magazine, Dec. 28, 1980, p.9--Box 32.3
Russell Banks. Wired, vol. 4, April 1997, p.48--Box 93
Russell Banks: An Interview, with Constance Rooke. Fiction International, no. 6/7, 1976, p.37--Box 82
Russell Banks: Interview by Brett Lockwood. Bluemilk Magazine, vol. 2, no. 2, April 1999, p.18--Box 78
Russell Banks; interview by Minami Aoyama. Esquire, vol. 6, no. 11, October 1992, p.116--Box 81
Russell Banks: Views from the American Crossroads. Interview with Marc Weitzmann. Autodafe, no. 1, Spring 2001, p.95--Box 77
Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story. The Missouri Review, vol. 7, no. 3, 1984, p.92--Box 27.3
School Days. Salmagundi, nos. 106-107, Spring/Summer 1995, p.162--Box 89
Searching for Survivors. Fiction, vol. 1, no. 3, 1972--Box 81
Season in the Cities. Southern Poetry Review, vol. 8, no. 2, Spring 1968, p.15--Box 90
September. The Literary Review, vol. 13, no. 4, Summer 1970, p.505--Box 84
Six Preliminary Revisions from the Cougar Book. Mulch, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1972--Box 22.9
Slave-Catcher. Adirondack Life, vol. 29, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 1998, p.44--Box 76
Smallpress Riprap: Fiction. The San Francisco Book Review, no. 20, June 1971, p. 30--Box 89
The Space Among. The San Francisco Book Review, no. 23, August 1972, p.4--Box 89
A Spirit of the Air. Interview with Sarah Polley. Black Book, Spring 2001, p.91--Box 78
The Star-Spangled Novel. Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 2, 2000, p.1--Box 78
Strictly in the Interests of Plausibility. Ploughshares, vol. 19, no. 4, 1993-Winter 1994, p.7--Box 88
Sweet Hereafter [excerpts]. Ontario Review, no. 35, Fall/Winter 1991-92, p.18--Box 87
Sweet Relief. The Village Voice, vol. 42, no. 49, Dec. 9, 1997, p.74--Box 93
Symposium: The Writer's Situation.--New American Review, vol. 9, April 1970, [p.61] and p.77--Box 86
Talking about American Fiction: A panel discussion with Marilynne Robinson, Russell Banks, Robert Stone, and David Rieff (Moderator: Robert Boyers). Salmagundi, no. 93, Winter 1992, p.61--Box 89
Three Poems: Grumblings from the South; Insomaniac; Day's End. The Carolina Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3, Fall 1967, p.57--Box 79
Times Four: Chapters and Verse; the story of four New Hampshire writers. New Hampshire Times, vol. 11, no. 18, Oct. 14-21, 1981, p.21--Box 86
To Change the World. PEN America, vol. 1, no. 2, Fall 2001, p.29--Box 88
To Give the Lie. Trace, vol. 2, 1968, p.277--Box 91
Too Late to Turn Back by Barbara Green [Banks review]. Brick, no. 61, Winter 1998, p.31--Box 78
The Travel Writer. The Antioch Review, vol. 47, no. 3, Summer 1989, p.354--Box 40.6
Travels in Mexico. Transatlantic Review, no. 35, Spring 1970, p.88--Box 91
Unseasonable. Mill Mountain Review, vol. 2, no. 2, 1975, p.162--Box 85
Watching Television/A Soap Opera. The Minnesota Review, 10, no. 3/4, 1970, p.54--Box 85
Wer Spricht es Endlich Aus?. Lettre International, vol. 52, March 2001, p.95--Box 74
Who Will Tell the People? Harper's, vol. 300, no. 1801, June 2000, p.83--Box 83
With Ché at Kitty Hawk. Shenandoah, vol. 25, no. 2, Winter 1974, p.3--Box 90
With Ché at the Plaza. Ploughshares, vol. 2, no. 1, 1974, p.21--Box 88
With Ché in New Hampshire. New American Review, vol. 10, August 1970, p.129--Box 86
Wonderful Reversal, A: Russell Banks on The Sweet Hereafter. Scenario, vol. 3, no. 4, Winter 1997, p.44--Box 89
Xmas. Antaeus, no. 64/65, Spring-Autumn 1990, p.176--Box 40.8

Russell Banks:

A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Scope and Contents

Restrictions

Access:

Separated Material

Administrative Information

Acquisition:

Processed by:

Folder List

Series I. Works

Series II. Correspondence

Series III. Other Papers

Series IV. Published Material

Index to Published Material