Theodore Taylor was born in North Carolina and considered himself strongly rooted in the "red clay" country near the Catawba River, although he worked and lived in many places around the world the world (Taylor). Growing up, his family was poor. He spent a lot of time outdoors. He sometimes went fishing with his father at the Hatteras Banks, a place that would later become the backdrop for his "Cape Hatteras Trilogy" of young adult novels (Miller). Theodore also served during World War II. He initially served as an AB Cadet Seaman on an oil tanker, the first of four merchant ships. He then became a naval officer in the Pacific Theater. A few months after the start of the Korean War; was called to active duty. Theodore began writing at the age of thirteen. His stories covered high school sporting events for the Portsmouth Virginia Evening Star. He left home at seventeen to join the Washington, D.C. Daily News as a copyboy. He discovered the highly educational aspects of living on eleven dollars a week. By the age of nineteen he was writing network sports for NBC in New York. A year after his first book, The Magnificent Mitscher, Taylor joined Paramount Pictures as a publicist. He later became story editor and finally associate producer. He got to work with Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable and others, on seventeen major films (Taylor). Every morning, when he got up, Theodore Taylor couldn't wait to walk into his cluttered office and hit his old dinosaur typewriter. He would tell his family, “I want to die hunched over that typewriter, working on a story.” He loved his readers and his fans. And...... middle of paper...... I am honored to meet him and those who know him only through the words he wrote. His family takes great comfort in knowing that his legacy lives on in his works that are sure to delight and entertain readers for years to come. Theodore Taylor had come a long way from his tough Scrabble roots in North Carolina. He would be the first to say that his eighty-five years on earth were as good as they are. His life's adventures have taken him to wild and woolly places, including exotic lands, the high seas, World War II and Hollywood movie sets, boxing rings, and the newsroom of some of the world's best newspapers. Along the way he collected snippets of interesting stories and characters. His readers experience many adventures and meet memorable people and animals with him as they read his books. He often said, "I don't have much of an imagination," but his family didn't believe him.