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Russell Banks (Cyclopedia of World Authors)

Russell Earl Banks was the son of working-class parents. His father, Earl Banks, was a plumber who shuffled his family around eastern New England in a futile quest for the American Dream. After Earl ran off to Florida with a girlfriend in 1952, Florence Taylor Banks divorced him and worked as a bookkeeper to support her young family. Russell entered high school as the oldest male in a household of marginal means.

Banks won a full scholarship to Colgate University in 1958, but he could not adjust to the elitist academic environment and dropped out during his first semester. In...

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