Russell Banks, the award-winning author of such novels as Lost Memory of Skin and The Sweet Hereafter, has died. He was 82. His death in upstate New York on Saturday followed a battle with cancer.
Banks often wrote works of historical fiction set in the Adirondack region where he lived, including the novel Cloudsplitter about the radical abolitionist John Brown and his family, and the libretto for the opera Harmony. The musical work, a collaboration with composer Robert Carl, wasbased on a period in the life of writer Mark Twain, when he would vacation with the family of composer Charles Ives in the Adirondacks.
Spotlight producer Paul Larson interviewed Russell Banks twice, once in 2018 to discuss a proposed mini-series based on Cloudsplitter, and a second time in 2021 about the premiere of the opera Harmony.
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Spotlight is made possible, in part, by the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life for year-round residents of the Adirondack Park. Spotlight is also supported by Hill and Hollow Music.