Mildred Taylor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

''''Mildred Delois Taylor (born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 13, 1944) is a famous author, known for her children’s fiction stories.

She did not stay in Jackson long; the racial discrimination in the South influenced the belief of her father, Wilbert Taylor, that better opportunities awaited his family in more northern states. Thus, after her first three months of life, her family moved to Ohio after her father established a factory in Toledo, Ohio. This move got her extended family to thinking about going North as well; it ended up that Mildred D. Taylor grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins.

But Mr. Taylor still had a love for his old home, so there were several trips to the relatives that had stayed in the South. Many stories of the family history and actual childhoods were told during those visits, and were the core inspiration for Mildred Taylor’s stories and books.

This storytelling time was a regular event on the trips to the South. The family storytellers recollected accounts of struggles with severe racism in the South, tragedies and triumphs; humorous yarns were told and many of the stories were about surviving and the African-American family keeping their dignity in a racist culture. Mildred went to the University of Colorado.

These anecdotes became very clear in Mildred’s mind. In fact, once she recalled that as the 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...” Taylor has talked about how much history was in the stories; some stories took place during times of slavery and some post-slavery.

Her saga about the Logan family is really based on her whole family history. For example, it starts out with The Land, which is based on the stories she heard about her great-grandfather, who was the son of a white plantation owner and a black woman in Alabama and how he purchased land in Mississippi. She is currently working on her last book, Logan, that finishes the saga off with the Logan family moving from Mississippi to Ohio.

[edit] Books

1) Song of the Trees"(1975)

2) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976)

3) Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981)

4. The Gold Cadillac (1987)

5. The Friendship (1987)

6. Mississippi Bridge (1990)

7. The Road to Memphis (1990)

8. The Well (1995)

9) The Land (2001)

10)The Bliss (2002)

Song of Trees--

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

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry--