]> Finding Aid for the Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers, 1955-1966 Processed by: Archives Staff; machine-readable finding aid created by: David Guion University Libraries, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2009 Machine-readable finding aid derived from XML authoring program. Date of source: April 2009; Description is in English Finding aid was prepared using DACS Finding Aid for the Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers, 1955-1966 University of North Carolina at Greensboro Descriptive Summary Peter Taylor (1917-1994) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who taught creative writing at Woman's College (now UNCG) from 1946 to 1952 and from 1963 to 1967, and eventually headed the creative writing program at the University of Virginia. The Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers date from 1955 to 1966 and contain handwritten and typed manuscripts of Taylor's works. Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers, 1955-1966 MSS021 Taylor, Peter, 1917-1994 0.8 Linear Feet, 2 Boxes University Archives and Manuscripts English Administrative Information Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

 Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

 Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers, University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

 Acquisition Information

Gift of the author in 1966.

Processing Information

Processed by Archives Staff.

Encoded by David Guion, April 2009.

 Biographical Note

Peter Taylor was born 8 January 1917 in Trenton, Tennessee. He enrolled at Vanderbilt University in 1936 and studied literature and creative writing with poets John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate, then transferred to Southwestern College in Memphis before completing his undergraduate work at Kenyon College in Ohio. It was at Kenyon that Taylor began lifelong friendships with fellow students Robert Lowell and Randall Jarrell.

In 1940 Taylor entered Louisiana State University as a graduate student. There, he studied with both Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren; however, he only completed two semesters. Warren would later call Taylor one of the twentieth century's "real, and probably enduring, masters of the short story."

Taylor served with the United States Army in England during World War II. After the war, he joined the faculty of Woman's College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). Taylor taught at Woman's College intermittently from 1946 to 1952 and from 1963 to 1967. He also taught at numerous other institutions, including Indiana State (1948-49), the University of Chicago (1952), Kenyon College (1952-57), Ohio State (1957-63), Harvard University (1964) and the University of Virginia (1967-1994), where he headed the creative writing program.

Taylor published short stories in numerous periodicals, including Harper's Bazaar and McCall's, but was best known for his contributions to The New Yorker. He authored seven collections of short stories, the novella A Woman of Means, and many experimental one act plays. His work won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for his novel A Summons to Memphis.

In 1943 Taylor married Eleanor Ross, a poet and 1940 graduate of the Woman's College. They had two children. Taylor died 2 November, 1994 at the age of 77 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Collection Overview

The Peter Hillsman Taylor Papers date from 1955 to 1966 and contain handwritten and typed manuscripts of Taylor's works. A few of the manuscripts are only fragments; several others are represented in more than one draft. A small number of letters from publishers are housed with the manuscripts to which they refer.

Collection Arrangement

The folders in each box are arranged alphabetically by title. When a folder contains more than one title, the arrangement is based on the first title in the folder. The box divisions are Taylor's.

Detailed Description of the Collection 1 1Cousins, Family Love, Family Life and All That, 1958 2The Girl from Forked Deer, typescript, circa 1957-1966 (Published as As Stand in the Mountains.) 3 The Girl from Forked Deer, handwritten, 1957-1966 4 Guests and Miss Lorena When Last Seen, 1958 5 Heads of Houses and A Friend and Protector, 1959 6 Heads of Houses, New Yorker galley proof, 1959 7 Je Suis Perdu (A Pair of Bright Blue Eyes) and The Other Times, 1956 8 Introduction by Robert Penn Warren to A Long Fourth and Other Stories, carbon typescript, dust jacket dummy, 1948 9 Miss Leonora When Last Seen, 1959 10 Nerves, At the Drugstore, Demons, and Sissy, 1960-1962 11 Reservations, The Unforgiveable, and Je Suis Perdu, 1957-1960 and undated 12 Tennessee Day in St. Louis, A Comedy, 1955-1957 13 There, Two Pilgrims, An Overwhelming Question, and The Freeway, 1960-1961 14 Who Was Jesse's Friend and Protector?, 1960 2 1 A Cheerful Disposition, 1966 2 At the Drug Store, A Chronic Complaint, and The Alchemist, 1962 3 The Cloistered Bull, a tribute to Randall Jarrell, 1966 4 Cousins, Family Love, Family Life, All That, 1958 5 Death of a Kinsman, 1949 6 Demons, 1961-1963 7 Heads of Houses, 1959-1962 8 Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, 1957 9 Miss Leonora When Last Seen, 1959 10 Mrs. Billingsby's Wine, 1966 11 Nerves, 1960 and undated 12 The Next Voice You Hear, 1957 13 The Other Times and Je Suis Perdu, 1956-1966 14 An Overwhelming Question, 1960 15 A Pair of Bright Blue Eyes (Je Suis Perdu), 1956-1964 16 The Paper Boy (Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time), 1957 17 Reservations, 1960 18 There, circa 1961-1964 19 The Throughway, circa 1964 20 Tom, Tell Him, circa 1960s 21 Two Pilgrims, circa 1963-1966 22 The Unforgiveable, circa 1957-1962 23 Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, circa 1957 24 Who Was Jesse's Friend and Protector?, 1958 and undated Related Material

The University Archives and Manuscripts at UNCG house the following works by Taylor:

A Long Fourth, and Other Stories, 1948; A Woman of Means, 1950; The Widows of Thornton, 1954; Tennessee Day in St. Louis, a Comedy, 1957; Happy Families are All Alike; a Collection of Stories, 1959; Miss Leonora When Last Seen, and Fifteen Other Stories, 1963; The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor, 1968; Presences; Seven Dramatic Pieces, 1973; In the Miro District and Other Stories, 1977; A Summons to Memphis, 1986; and In the Tennessee Country, 1994.

We also house the papers of Taylor's wife, Eleanor Ross Taylor.

More Peter Hillsman Taylor papers at the University of Virginia.

William Broadway Collection on Peter Taylor at the University of Tennessee.

See more literary manuscript collections held by UNCG.