Taylor, Theodore 1921-2006 (T.T. Lang)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 23, 1921, in Statesville, NC; died of complications from a heart attack, October 26, 2006, in Laguna Beach, CA. Journalist and author. Taylor was an award-winning author best known for his young adult novel The Cay. He enjoyed writing from an early age, with his first interest being journalism. The young Taylor got his start when he was just thirteen, contributing sports stories to the Portsmouth Star. He dropped out of high school, because he was unable to complete the math requirements for graduation, and was a cub reporter for the Washington Daily News and a radio sports writer for the National Broadcasting Company. In 1942 he joined the Merchant Marine. Two years later, he was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy. Taylor served until 1946, and again in the early 1950s during the Korean War. Between his military assignments, he was briefly a sports editor for Sunset News and was in public relations for New York University and YMCA schools. From 1949 to 1950 he also was a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel Star. After his war duties in Korea, Taylor returned to publicity, working in Hollywood for Paramount Pictures, and then was a story editor, writer, and associate producer for Perlberg-Seaton Productions. From 1961 to 1968 he was a freelance press agent, and from 1965 to 1968 he was a screenwriter for Twentieth Century-Fox. Taylor's Hollywood employment was due to a need for income while he pursued a writing career in his spare time. His early books were nonfiction, and he was researching one such title, Fire on the Beaches (1997), when he stumbled on the story that would inspire The Cay (1969). He read about an incident in which a young boy, one of many victims of a German U-boat attack during World War II, was lost at sea. Taylor imagined what might have happened had he survived, filling out the characterizations with people he knew from life. The story of the marooned, prejudiced white boy Phillip and the wise black man Timothy who helps him outgrow his racism drew criticism from some who felt Timothy was portrayed stereotypically. Many more critics and readers, however, praised the novel, which went on to win a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and other honors. It was also adapted as a television movie in 1974. At first resisting the demand for a sequel, Taylor eventually published Timothy of the Cay in 1993, which was also critically acclaimed. The Cay would prove to be Taylor's greatest success, however. He went on to publish numerous other young adult novels, including The Children's War (1971), Sweet Friday Island (1984), The Weirdo (1991), and Ice Drift (2004), often earning more praise and literary honors, but readers always remembered him best for The Cay. Taylor was also the author of novels and nonfiction for adults. His numerous other honors include a Young Reader's Medal for The Trouble with Tuck (1981) and the Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award for The Bomb (1995).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2006, p. B10.

Washington Post, October 30, 2006, p. B4.