University of Virginia Library

Began As Child

Taylor's evolution as a writer
began when as a child he simply
recounted on paper the many
stories which were exchanged in his
family. He explains that while the
direction towards a career in
writing was side-tracked once by a
momentary impulse to become a
preacher and often by a frequent
inclination to study painting, the
influence of his early life in a
family of raconteurs began to make
itself known early in his youth. The
more he wrote down the stories his
parents and grand-parents told, the
more he began to discover his own
attitudes about living in the South
and to study and understand the art
of writing.