Theodore Taylor

Taylor was born in NorthCarolina and still thinks of himself as strongly rooted in that quiet "redclay" country by the Catawba River, though he has worked and lived in manyplaces around the world. He began writing at the age of thirteen, covering highschool sports events for the Portsmouth, Virginia, Evening Star. Leavinghome at seventeen to join the Washington, D.C. Daily News as a copyboy,he discovered the highly educational aspects of living on $11 a week."Thank God my boarding house was only a dollar a day." Two years laterhe was writing radio network sports for NBC, in New York.During World War II, he first served as a cadet-AB seaman on a gasolinetanker, first of four merchant ships; then became a naval officer in the PacificTheater. He was recalled to active duty a few months after the Korean War began.