University of Virginia Library

Art School

Although he attended art school
and still produces canvasses today,
Taylor decided in his teens to study
writing in college. He attended
Southwestern College where he met
poet Allen Tate. Tate recognized
Taylor's, talent and persuaded him
to transfer to Vanderbilt, where he
could study under John Crowe
Ransom. But before Taylor got
settled at Vanderbilt, Ransom accepted
a position on the faculty at
Kenyon College and the young
writer transferred once again.

At Kenyon Taylor roomed with
Robert Lowell, who he recalls
played varsity football and became
infamous for turning up at practice
with poems scrawled across the
sheets of secret plays he was to
have learned the night before.
Besides Taylor and Lowell, Ransom's
name and skill attracted
Randall Jarrell, Rob McCauley
(currently Fiction Editor of Playboy
Magazine), Harry Brown (now
a highly acclaimed Hollywood
screenwriter) and several other
talented young writers. This small
group lived and studied together,
criticizing each other's work and
developing new ideas. Today Taylor
reviews those days as among the
most rewarding of his life, believing
be learned from his time at Kenyon
what would have otherwise taken
him ten years.