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For other people named Theodore Taylor, see Theodore Taylor.

Theodore Taylor (b. June 23, 1921, Statesville, North Carolina - d. October 26, 2006, Laguna Beach, California) was the author of more than 50 fiction and non-fiction books for young adult readers, including The Cay, The Weirdo (winner of the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery), Ice Drift, Timothy of the Cay, The Bomb, Snipera, and Rogue Wave.

In 1931, Taylor's family moved from Statesville to Craddock, a village near Portsmouth, North Carolina. At age 13 he was hired by the local newspaper to write a column on high school sports.

In high school Taylor failed to pass a required course in mathematics, and he dropped out of school at age 17.

Taylor joined the merchant marines in World War II and earned a commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He was recalled to the Navy during the Korean War.

Taylor also worked as a Hollywood press agent for many years and a screen writer for a short time.

Taylor did not begin writing books for young adults until 1968.

Taylor obtained the idea of the plot for The Cay while conducting research at the Coast Guard archives for his 1957 non-fiction book Fire on the Beaches. Taylor read an account of a Dutch ship being torpedoed by the Germans in 1942. The majority of the survivors crawled into a lifeboat, but one 11-year-old Dutch boy swam to a raft that had been launched by the force of the torpedo impact. A German submarine surfaced between the lifeboat and the raft, preventing the occupants of the lifeboat from attempting a rescue of the boy. By the time the submarine left, it was dark and the raft was no longer visible to the occupants of the lifeboat.

For the next decade, Taylor pondered the ordeal of the boy on the raft. During walks along the beach, Taylor would look out to the Atlantic Ocean horizon and imagine the boy holding on to the raft and praying for rescue.

The Cay, Taylor's fictionalized account of the boy on the raft, took only three weeks to complete, and has become perhaps the most beloved of his young adult fiction novels. It has seen worldwide sales in the millions. Taylor based the character of the boy in his book on a childhood playmate. "The one thing I remembered about [him] was that his mother had taught him to hate black people and to hate them with a passion," Taylor once told a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. In the book, the boy sheds his racist views as he learns to admire and respect the black man who rescues him from the ocean. For a short period of time The Cay was banned and was classified as racist, but this is mainly because most books are jugded by their first few pages, as this book involves a child learning not to be racist.

Theodore Taylor died at his home in Laguna Beach, California, at the age of 85. It is believed that the cause of death was a heart attack.

• Theodore Taylor's website
• Stewart, Jocelyn. (2006, October 28). Theodore Taylor, 85; wrote 'The Cay' and other novels for the young. The Los Angeles Times