Taylor, Mildred Delois

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TAYLOR, Mildred Delois

Born 1943, Jackson, Mississippi

Daughter of Wilbert L. and Deletha Davis Taylor

In writing realistic stories about the African American experience in the South, Mildred Delois Taylor juxtaposes the warmth and safety of family love and community solidarity against the burning injustices of racism. Emotionally powerful and often graphic in its horrifying verisimilitude, Taylor's relatively small but critical body of work celebrates the physical and spiritual survival of her heroic black characters and the indomitability of the human spirit.

Taylor graduated from the University of Toledo and pursued graduate study in journalism at the University of Colorado, but her most valuable education took place at home and through life experiences. Storytelling was an integral part of Taylor's family life. From her father, a master storyteller, she learned the black history absent from the textbooks she studied at school—a history that emphasized the pride, dignity, and values of African American life despite the sorrows and defeats experienced in an unjust society. During two years (1965-67) spent in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps, Taylor was frequently reminded of her father's stories, and her determination to write the truth about the black experience further solidified.

Taylor's first book, a novella called The Song of the Trees (1975, most recent reissue 1997), won first prize in the African American category of a competition sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Told from the perspective of eight-year-old Cassie Logan, the book begins the saga of the proud Logan family, and in particular the children, which continues in much of Taylor's subsequent work. The Logan books chronicle the family's hardships and joys in Depression-era Mississippi, exploring what it means to grow from childhood to adulthood as an African American in the United States. Themes of strength, dignity, determination, integrity, love of the land, and the importance of family are woven through works alive with drama and vivid with sure characterization, quick dialogue, and a skilled narrative style.

Taylor incorporates into her stories much of what she learned in her own childhood, and incidents about which she read or heard. The result are stories that bristle with life, read like autobiography, and have an aural, poetic quality. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976, reissued 1997), the first full-length novel about Cassie and her family, won the 1977 Newbery Medal, was chosen as a National Book award finalist, and was named a Boston Globe-Horn Book honor book for 1977. Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981, reissued 1991) was nominated for the American Book award and won the Coretta Scott King award for 1981. The Friendship and Other Stories (1987, 1993), like The Song of the Trees, focuses on a single incident in the life of the Logans, and is also intended for a younger audience. It received the 1989 Boston Globe—Horn Book award. The Road to Memphis (1990, 1995) brings the Logan children into explosive young adulthood, and was chosen as the 1990 Coretta Scott King award winner.

In The Gold Cadillac (1987, 1998), a Christopher award winner, Taylor introduces the reader to new characters, 'lois and her sister, Wilma, who discover for the first time what it is like to be scared because of the color of their skin. Mississippi Bridge (1990) is written from the point of view of a white boy, Jeremy Simms, who witnesses a tragic bus accident that results in ironic justice for the blacks who have been ordered off the bus. Both books resonate with honesty and emotionally wrenching incidents.

In all of her work, Taylor draws upon the well of history and the "cauldron of story." As a writer, she considers herself only a link in the storytelling chain, drawing from a long tradition that has enabled her to write of herself, but ultimately to write of others. Taylor's work rises above the personal to the universal, standing as a historical monument to how things used to be, and a contemporary reminder of how much work remains to be done in the eradication of racial discrimination.

In 1988 Taylor was honored by the Children's Book Council "for a body of work that has examined significant social issues and presented them in outstanding books for young readers." She is widely acknowledged as a talented voice whose groundbreaking contributions have greatly enriched the field of children's literature. Many critics consider Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry already a classic work in the tradition of realistic fiction. Nearly all of her books were reprinted in the late 1990s; an enduring testament to her consummate skill and popularity.

Other Works:

The Well: David's Story (1995, 1999).

Bibliography:

African-American Voices and Visions: Biographies of Some of our Most Prestigious Author and Illustrators (1997). Crowe, C., Presenting Mildred D. Taylor (1999). Hohn, H., Nevada Women Military Pilots of World War II (1998). Ketter, J., Responding to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Reading/Writing Connection (1991). McDougal L., ed., Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Related Readings (1997). Pilgrim, I., Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor: Notes (1997). Rediger, P., Great African Americans in Literature (1996). The Marble in the Water: Essays on Contemporary Writers of Fiction for Children and Young Adults (1980). Vick, D., Favorite Authors of Young Adult Fiction (1995). Wood, M., Twelve Multicultural Novels: Reading and Teaching Strategies (1997).

Reference works:

Black Authors and Illustrators of Child-ren's Books (1988). CA (1980, 1989). CANR (1989). CLC (1982). CLR (1985). DLB (1986). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995). SATA (1979, 1988). TCCW (1989).