author
Polan Banks
1906–1984
Best known as a novelist whose stories made their way to Hollywood, this Virginia-born writer moved easily between popular fiction and screen work. His books include Black Ivory, January Heights, and Carriage Entrance, the last of which was adapted into the film My Forbidden Past.
1 Audiobook
Black ivory
by Polan Banks
About the author
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 21, 1906, Polan Banks built a career as both a novelist and a screenwriter. Reliable records connect him with a run of fiction from the 1920s onward, including Black Ivory, The Gentleman from America, January Heights, and Carriage Entrance.
His work also reached the screen. January Heights became the basis for the 1941 film The Great Lie, and Carriage Entrance was adapted into the 1951 film My Forbidden Past. Film and biographical sources also credit him with writing work connected to early Hollywood productions such as Street of Women.
Banks died in 1984. While he is not widely remembered today, his career shows how closely popular novels and studio-era cinema could overlap, with one writer moving comfortably between the bookshelf and the movie screen.