Gladys Taylor (publisher)
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{short description|Canadian writer and publisher}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Gladys Taylor
| birth_name = Gladys Tall
| image =
| birth_date = 1917
| birth_place = Swan River, Manitoba
| death_date = May 31, {{Death year and age|2015|1917}}
| death_place = Airdrie, Alberta
| occupation = novelist, publisher, memoirist
| period = 1950s–1990s
| nationality = Canadian
| notableworks = Pine Roots, The King Tree, Alone in the Australian Outback, Alone in the Boardroom
| spouse =
| website =
}}
Gladys Taylor (née Tall; 1917 – May 31, 2015) was a Canadian writer and publisher."Albertan writes book on women in business; Author has gone from washing towels to heading publishing company". The Gazette, January 26, 1987.
Biography
Born in Swan River, Manitoba, she trained as a teacher in Winnipeg and taught in her hometown for several years before marrying Lorne Taylor in 1940; during World War II, Lorne served in the Canadian Armed Forces while Gladys served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps.
Following the war, the couple moved to Thetford Mines, Quebec. As a mother and housewife, she began writing fiction as a hobby, and won the Ryerson Fiction Award twice in the 1950s for her novels Pine Roots in 1956{{cite news|title=Ryerson Fiction Award |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/892993//|newspaper=Ottawa Journal|date=March 14, 1959|page=44|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 21, 2014}} {{Open access}} and The King Tree in 1958. She also served for several years as editor of Canadian Bookman & Quarterly, the quarterly trade publication of the Canadian Authors Association.Lyn Harrington, Syllables of Recorded Time: The Story of the Canadian Authors Association 1921–1981. Dundurn Press, 1981. {{ISBN|9780889241121}}. p. 279.
Following her divorce from Lorne at age 50, Taylor moved to Alberta."Film company will shoot true story of woman's adventures in Australia". Toronto Star, October 24, 1988. With few immediate opportunities for work, she placed a classified advertisement to promote her services as an editor. She received a response from a man who was launching a new magazine, Western Leisure, and became an editor and investor in the magazine, eventually buying out her partner and serving as the magazine's publisher. She then expanded her business by acquiring a network of community newspapers, including The Wheel and Deal, the Rocky View Five Village Weekly, the Carstairs Courier and the Airdrie Advance.
In 1977, she went on a driving tour in Australia, publishing the memoir Alone in the Australian Outback in 1984; the book formed the basis for the 1992 film Over the Hill."Literary luminaries descend on Camrose". Edmonton Journal, February 10, 1990. In 1987, she published Alone in the Boardroom, a memoir of her experience as a woman in business at a time when that was still a relative novelty."Women's Network helps boost confidence". Toronto Star, October 27, 1987.
She was also known for her editorials in her newspapers, which were harshly critical of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Alberta premier Don Getty."Taylor seeks Senate seat". Calgary Herald, September 14, 1989. She endorsed the Reform Party of Canada in the 1988 federal election.
She ran as an independent candidate in the 1989 Alberta Senate nominee election, finishing fourth of six candidates."Waters declares victory in Alberta senate vote". The Globe and Mail, October 17, 1989.
Taylor's fifth book, Valinda, Our Daughter, was published in 1993. The book tells of the EgyptAir Flight 648 hijacking, with a focus on one of the Canadian passengers.{{Cite web|title = Beiseker family the centre of potential Hollywood movie|url = http://www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20130830/RVW0302/308309985/0/text|publisher = Rocky View Weekly|date = August 30, 2013|accessdate = May 31, 2015|archive-date = June 11, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150611170919/http://www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20130830/RVW0302/308309985/0/text|url-status = dead}}
Taylor died on May 31, 2015, in Airdrie, Alberta.[http://www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20150608/RVW0302/306089994/0/RVW "Family and friends remember Gladys Taylor, founder of the Rocky View Weekly"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611195528/http://www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20150608/RVW0302/306089994/0/RVW |date=June 11, 2015 }}. Rocky View Weekly, June 8, 2015.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Gladys}}
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:20th-century Canadian memoirists
Category:Canadian newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Canadian women in business
Category:Writers from Manitoba
Category:Women in Alberta politics
Category:People from Swan River, Manitoba
Category:Canadian magazine publishers (people)
Category:Businesspeople from Alberta
Category:Canadian women memoirists