Russell Banks died of cancer on January 8 at his home in Saratoga Springs, NY. Banks was the author of 21 books, including Continental Drift (1985) and Cloudsplitter (1998), which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He rooted such novels as “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Affliction” in the wintry, rural communities of his native Northeast and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from modern blue collar workers to the radical abolitionist John Brown. Banks was 82.