Robert Lewis Taylor (September 24, 1912 – September 30, 1998) was an American writer and winner of the 1959

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published durin ...

Education

Born in

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson and Williamson Counties, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". The city developed from 1853 because of the stimulation of railroad construction into the ...

, Taylor attended

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

for one year. The university now houses his papers. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor of arts in 1933.

Career

After college, he became a journalist and won awards for reporting. In 1939, he became a writer for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' magazine, contributing biographical sketches. His work also appeared in ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' and ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

''. From 1942 to 1946, Taylor served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. During his service, he wrote numerous stories and ''Adrift in a Boneyard'', an extended fiction about survivors of a disaster. In 1949,''The Saturday Evening Post'' commissioned a series of biographical sketches of

W. C. Fields William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathet ...

. He published them together as ''W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes.'' Taylor continued to write fiction and biographies, including one on

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

. Taylor's 1958 novel ''

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters ''The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters'' is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Lewis Taylor, which was later made into a short-running television series on ABC from September 1963 through March 1964, featuring Kurt Russell as Jaimie, D ...

'', about a 14-year-old and his father in the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

, won the Pulitzer Prize and was purchased for a film, but eventually became a television series, instead. ''A Journey to Matecumbe'' was adapted in 1976 as the Disney movie ''

Treasure of Matecumbe ''Treasure of Matecumbe'' is a 1976 American adventure western film directed by Vincent McEveety and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was based on the novel ''A Journey to Matecumbe'' by Robert Lewis Taylor. The filming locations were in D ...

''. His novel ''Professor Fodorski'' served as the basis for the 1962 musical '' All American''. Taylor died on September 30, 1998.

Bibliography

*''Adrift in a Boneyard'' (1948) * ''Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant, Chief'' (1948) * ''W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes'' (1949) * ''Professor Fodorski'' (1950) * ''The Running Pianist'' (1950) * ''Winston Churchill: An Informal Study of Greatness'' (1952) * ''The Bright Sands'' (1954) * ''

'' (1958) * ''Center Ring'' (1960) * ''A Journey to Matecumbe'' (1961) * ''Two Roads to Guadalupe'' (1964) * ''Vessel of Wrath: The Life and Times of Carry Nation'' (1966) * ''A Roaring in the Wind'' (1978) * ''Niagara'' (1980)

References

External links

Robert Lewis Taylor Papers, 1947–1968
at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center 1912 births 1998 deaths Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners United States Navy personnel of World War II University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni People from Carbondale, Illinois Novelists from Illinois The New Yorker staff writers 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Journalists from Illinois 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists {{US-novelist-1910s-stub