Michael A. Banks

For other people named Michael Banks, see Michael Banks (disambiguation).

Michael A. Banks (born 21 March 1951 in Princeton, Indiana) is a writer and editor of science fiction and non-fiction. In the science fiction field he is perhaps best known for nonfiction works about the genre (including "Understanding Science Fiction," 1980) and collaborations with Mack Reynolds. Banks has several other novels to his credit, such as The Odysseus Solution with Dean R. Lambe, and he has also been a frequent contributor to Analog, Asimov's SF, and other publications.

A former columnist for Windows Magazine and Computer Shopper, Banks was early on the scene as an Internet journalist, documenting the growth of online services and, later, the Internet and Web from the early 1980s onward. His book The Modem Reference was a standard guide to the online world throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, selling more than 200,000 copies.

Banks explored Internet crime and computer privacy with books such as Web Psychos", "Stalkers and Pranksters, PC Confidential.

He also served as a freelance acquisitions editor for Baen Books, and associate editor for Baen's quarterly "book-a-zine," and New Destinies in the 1980s.

Banks has lately turned to the biography field, writing about noted aviators, inventors, and other figures for magazines. One such CROSLEY is the story of inventor Powel Crosley, Jr., who founded WLW and built the Crosley automobile, Moonbeam aircraft, and low-cost radios that touched off the broadcasting industry in 1921, in addition to being involved in a number of other high-tech ventures during the first half of the 20th Century.

Banks more recently wrote On the Way to the Web: The Secret History of the Internet, Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Created Talk TV. On the Way to the Web carries special appeal in that it tells the complete story of what was happening online before the Web—including the histories of Videotex and online services such as CompuServe, The Source, PlayNET, AOL, Q-Link, Viewdata, Prestel,

His most recent book, Crosley and Crosley Motors, presents the full history of the Crosley automobile and biographical details of Powel Crosley. Many previously unpublished photos and info about the man and the car unavailable elsewhere round out the story of the car, America's first compact.

References

• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pages 88–89

External links

• Michael A. Banks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Blog