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Raymond E. Banks

{{Short description|American writer}}

File:Raymond E Banks 5502.jpg

Raymond Eugene Banks (8 November 1918 – 3 August 1996) was an American science fiction writer. In addition to his legal name, he also wrote under variants such as "Ray Banks", "Ray E. Banks", "R. E. Banks", and "Ramond Banks"; he also (infrequently) used the pen names "Fred Freair" and "Ralph Burch".

In a brief 1977 biographical note in the anthology Alpha 8 (accompanying Banks' story The Short Ones), Robert Silverberg described him as "one of the most promising of the postwar crop [of SF writers]", but also noted that "his name is rarely mentioned today." Banks had sold a fantasy story to Esquire soon after his demobilization in 1946, and had begun writing full-time in 1952. During the next ten years, he published around forty SF stories, mostly in what Silverberg termed "fairly ephemeral magazines" such as Dynamic Science Fiction, but also regularly appearing in higher-profile titles such as Astounding and Galaxy.

The SF Encyclopedia characterized Banks' style as "sex-dominated Planetary Romances or Space Operas," though referring only to his novels; his shorter fiction was more varied, being somewhat reminiscent of the work of A. E. van Vogt. His stories featured large-scale warfare, but also explored social and political themes, and featured occasional touches of body horror.

Around 1960, Banks attempted to diversify his output and break into crime fiction with a series of noirish novels starring the Mike Hammer-like hardboiled detective Sam King. His output decreased significantly after 1961, and petered out almost completely during the seventies; his last few novels were sexually-explicit genre-exploitation pieces published by Hustler between 1978 and 1980.

Bibliography

  • "The Sad Room" (Esquire, 1946)
  • Never Trust an Intellectual (Dynamic Science Fiction, 1953)
  • Ixtl Igo, Son! (1953)
  • [https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v52n03_1953-11_Bitman/page/n56/mode/1up The Happiness Effect] (Astounding, 1953){{cite web

|url = http://www.tangentonline.com/old-time-radio/1922-exploring-tomorrow-happiness-effect-by-raymond-banks

|title = The Happiness Effect by Raymond Banks

|author = Dave Truesdale

|authorlink = Dave Truesdale

|date = 6 September 2012

|format = review

|work = Exploring Tomorrow—radio broadcast introduced by John W. Campbell

|publisher = Tangent Online

|accessdate = 13 September 2012

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140707030644/http://www.tangentonline.com/old-time-radio/1922-exploring-tomorrow-happiness-effect-by-raymond-banks

|archivedate = 2014-07-07

|url-status = dead

}}

  • This Side Up (1954) (as R. E. Banks)
  • The Work-Out Planet (1954) (as R. E. Banks)
  • Christmas Trombone (1954)
  • Ticket to the Stars (1954)
  • "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1954-03/Galaxy_1954_03#page/n51/mode/2up The Littlest People]" (Galaxy, 1954)
  • Act of Passion (1954)
  • The Watchers (1954)
  • "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1954-07/Galaxy_1954_07#page/n33/mode/2up This Side Up]" (Galaxy, 1954)
  • Life of a Salesman (1954) (as Fred Freair)
  • Men of the Ocean (1955) (as R. E. Banks)
  • The Earthlight Commandos (1955)
  • Disaster Committee (1955)
  • The Short Ones (1955)
  • The Ear-Friend (1955) (as R. E. Banks)
  • Genus: Little Monster (1955) (as R. E. Banks)
  • The Critic (1955)
  • The Instigators (1956) (as R. E. Banks)
  • "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1957-05/Galaxy_1957_05#page/n97/mode/2up Double Dome]" (Galaxy, 1957)
  • Hunt and Strike (1957)
  • "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1957-12/Galaxy_1957_12#page/n77/mode/2up Payload]" (Galaxy, 1957)
  • Natural Frequency (1959)
  • More Like Home (1959)
  • Rabbits to the Moon (1959)
  • The Twenty Friends of William Shaw (1960)
  • To Be Continued (1960)
  • "[https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v18n05_1960-06#page/n107/mode/2up Transstar]" (Galaxy, 1960)
  • The Revenant (1960)
  • The Happiest Missile (1961)
  • Buttons (1964)
  • The Sea-Water Papers (1964)
  • Deliver the Man! (1966) (as Ray E. Banks)
  • The City That Loves You (1969) (as Ray Banks)
  • Walter Perkins Is Here! (1970)
  • Lust of the Swampmen (novel, as by Ralph Burch, 1978; aka Daryl: Skull Keep of the Primal Clan (1978); aka The Savage Princess (1980))
  • Lust in Space (novel, as by Ralph Burch, 1978; aka Ultimate Transform (1978, as Ramond Banks); aka The Moon Rapers (1980, as Ramond Banks)
  • Duplicate Lovers (novel, by Ralph Burch, 1980

References

  • {{isfdb name|id=Raymond_E._Banks|name=Raymond E. Banks}}

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Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:American male novelists

Category:American science fiction writers

Category:1918 births

Category:1974 deaths

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Place of death missing

Category:American male short story writers

Category:20th-century American short story writers

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