author
Polan Banks
1906–1984
A novelist, newspaperman, and screenwriter, Polan Banks moved between popular fiction and Hollywood, creating stories shaped by romance, travel, history, and the cinema. His books included Black Ivory, The Street of Women, The Man from Cook’s, and Carriage Entrance.
1 Audiobook
Black ivory
by Polan Banks
About the author
Born Algernon Polan Banks on July 21, 1906, in Norfolk, Virginia, he attended Baltimore City College and worked as an author, newspaperman, and novelist. His first novel, Black Ivory (1926), was a historical adventure set in eighteenth-century Louisiana; later books included The Gentleman from America, The Far Horizon, Brief Rapture, There Goes Lona Henry, and Maharajah.
Banks also developed strong ties to Hollywood. His novel The Street of Women was adapted into a 1932 film starring Kay Francis, and he helped create The Woman Accused, a collaborative novel connected with a Paramount film. He was credited as a writer and producer on films including The Great Lie (1941) and My Forbidden Past (1951), the latter based on his novel Carriage Entrance.
During World War II, Banks served as a captain and chief of the War Department’s stage and screen section. He died in March 1984.