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 during ...

Education

Born in

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 25,083, making it the most po ...

, 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 T ...

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 magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

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

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' 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 wi ...

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

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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. 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 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

. 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, published in 1958. It was later made into a short-running television series on ABC from September 1963 through March 1964, featuring Kurt Ru ...

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

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) 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 from the rest of the U ...

, 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''. 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Robert Lewis 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