Manly Banister

Born in McCormick, Washington, on March 9, 1914, Manly Miles Banister wrote across several fields rather than sticking to just one. Science fiction readers know him for stories such as The Great Illusion and A Gift from Earth, while bibliographic sources also record detective fiction and pseudonyms including Gregg Powers and Val Seanne.

He was also deeply connected to the world of making books, not just writing them. That side of his career is reflected in his well-known practical work The Craft of Bookbinding, which helped establish him as both an author and a craftsman.

Banister died on June 8, 1986. What makes him especially memorable is the unusual mix in his career: he could imagine far-off worlds for pulp and genre readers, then turn around and write with equal care about the making of books themselves.