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Mildred D. Taylor

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Mildred D. Taylor
BornMildred DeLois Taylor
(1943-09-13) September 13, 1943 (age 80)
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationUniversity of Toledo (1965)[1]
GenreChildren's literature
Notable worksRoll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Notable awardsNewbery Medal
1977

Mildred DeLois Taylor (born September 13, 1943) is an African-American author of nine novles including The Road to Memphis, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, The Land, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.[2] She is known for her works exploring the struggle faced by African-American families in the Deep South. She received the 1977 Newbery Medal for her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the inaugural NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2003.

Biography

Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1943, and is the great-granddaughter of a former slave who was the son of an African-Indian woman and a white landowner. She lived there a short amount of time, then moved to Toledo, Ohio where she attended Toledo’s public schools and then graduated from the University of Toledo in 1965. She then spent two years with the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, and after returning to the United States, she earned a master's degree in journalism at the University of Colorado, where she was instrumental in creating a Black Studies Program as a member of the Black Student Alliance. She now lives in Colorado.[3] Taylor has expressed her views on the Great Depression as an economical crisis, as well as slavery.

Many of her works are based on stories told by her father, uncles, and her aunt that she heard while growing up. Taylor said that without her family, all the storytellers who always shared the history, and especially without her father, her books "would not have been".[4] She has stated that these anecdotes became very clear in her mind, and in fact, once she realized that adults talked about the past, "I began to visualize all the family who had once known the land, and I felt as if I knew them, too ..."[5] Taylor has talked about how much history was in the stories; some stories took place during times of slavery and some post-slavery.

Taylor's most famous book is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976). In 1977, the book won the Newbery Medal. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the middle book, chronologically, in the Logans series that also includes titles such as Song of the Trees (1975), Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1992), and The Land (2001).[6] Her collective contributions to children's literature resulted in her being awarded the inaugural NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2003.[7]

Works

Awards

Body of Work

Song of the Trees

  • First prize (African-American category), Council on Interracial Books for Children, 1973
  • Outstanding Book of the Year Citation, The New York Times, 1975
  • Jane Addams Honors Citation, 1976

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

  • Outstanding Book of the Year Citation, The New York Times, 1981
  • Jane Addams Honor Citation, 1982
  • American Book Award nomination, 1982
  • Coretta Scott King Award, 1982

The Friendship

The Gold Cadillac

The Road to Memphis

  • Special Award, Children's Book Council, 1988
  • Coretta Scott King Award, 1990

Mississippi Bridge

  • Christopher Award, 1990

The Well: David's Story

  • Jane Addams Book Award, Jane Addams Peace Council, 1996

The Land

See also

References

  1. ^ The Mississippi Writers Page: "Mildred D.Taylor" at University of Mississippi
  2. ^ "Mildred D. Taylor". Penguin Random House. Penguin Random House. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  3. ^ "Author Profile: Mildred D. Taylor". World Literature Today. 78 (2): 3. May 2004. JSTOR 40158381.
  4. ^ Taylor, Mildred D. (September 2014). "Tapped on the Shoulder". World Literature Today. 88 (5): 60–61. doi:10.7588/worllitetoda.88.5.0060.
  5. ^ "Acceptance of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for The Friendship". The Horn Book Magazine. March 1989. pp. 179–80.
  6. ^ "Logans series" at Goodreads.
  7. ^ "My life as a writer. (Mildred D. Taylor)". World Literature Today. May 1, 2004. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "2003 – Mildred D. Taylor". The Neustadt Prize. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
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