Charles Eugene Banks

Charles Eugene Banks (April 3, 1852 – April 30, 1932) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, author, novelist, poet, playwright, historian, and orator.

Banks was born to Seth Lee and Sarah M. Banks at Lyons in Clinton County, Iowa. Raised on a farm, he was educated by his mother for several years before attending public schools. As a poetically-inclined traveling shoe salesman, Banks' professional writing career began with submissions to a regionally distributed trade journal. He eventually found writing work in Chicago, where in 1892 he married actress Carrie Wyatt Lounsbury. Banks returned to Iowa with his wife and in Davenport he mentored several young writers known as the Davenport group: Susan Glaspell, George Cram Cook, and Floyd Dell. He later moved to Seattle where he worked as an editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, before retiring to Hawaii. Banks was widowed in 1926. In 1932 he was struck by an automobile and died. Close personal friend Clarence Darrow delivered Banks' eulogy and served as executor of his estate. According to his obituary Banks left no surviving offspring.