- Peter Hillsman Taylor
Peter Taylor (
8 January 1917 ,Trenton, Tennessee –2 November ,1994 ,Charlottesville, Virginia ) was an American writer.Biography
Taylor enrolled at
Vanderbilt University in 1936 and studied literature and creative writing with poetsJohn Crowe Ransom andAllen Tate , then transferred toSouthwestern College in Memphis before completing his undergraduate work atKenyon College inOhio . It was at Kenyon that Taylor began lifelong friendships with fellow studentsRobert Lowell andRandall Jarrell .In 1940 Taylor entered
Louisiana State University as a graduate student. There, he studied with bothCleanth Brooks andRobert Penn Warren ; however, he only completed two semesters. Warren would later call Taylor one of the twentieth century's "real, and probably enduring, masters of the short story."Taylor served with the
United States Army inEngland duringWorld War II . After the war, he joined the faculty of Woman's College (now theUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro ). Taylor taught at Woman's College intermittently from 1946 to 1952 and from 1963 to 1967. He also taught at numerous other institutions, includingIndiana State (1948-49),the University of Chicago (1952),Kenyon College (1952-57),Ohio State (1957-63),Harvard University (1964) and theUniversity of Virginia (1967-1994), where he headed the creative writing program.Taylor published short stories in numerous periodicals, including
Harper's Bazaar andMcCall's , but was best known for his contributions toThe New Yorker . He authored seven collections of short stories, the novella "A Woman of Means", and many experimental one act plays. His work won many awards, including aPulitzer Prize in 1987 for his novel "A Summons to Memphis".In 1943 Taylor married Eleanor Ross, a poet and 1940 graduate of the Woman's College. They had two children. Taylor died at the age of 77.
[http://library.uncg.edu/depts/archives/mss/html/Mss021.htm]
References
[http://library.uncg.edu/depts/archives/mss/html/Mss021.htm Finding Aid for the Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers, 1955-1966] The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
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