Sydney Taylor
Sydney Taylor was an American author best known for her children's book series, "All-of-a-Kind Family," which provides a vivid portrayal of Jewish immigrant life in early 20th-century New York City. Born Sarah Brenner on October 30, 1904, in a working-class family on the Lower East Side, she grew up celebrating Jewish traditions and nurturing her creative talents in the arts. After changing her name to Sydney Taylor following her marriage to Ralph Taylor in 1925, she pursued various artistic careers, including acting and dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Taylor's first book was published in 1951 and was inspired by stories she told her daughter about her own childhood experiences. Over three decades, she authored ten books and several short stories, with her last works being published posthumously after her passing from cancer in 1978. Her contributions to children's literature have been recognized through the establishment of the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, which honors notable writers in the field, with Taylor being its first recipient in 1979. Her enduring legacy continues to resonate, as her work remains in print and influential in Jewish children's literature.
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Subject Terms
Sydney Taylor
Author
- Born: Probably October 30, 1904
- Birthplace: Lower East Side, New York, New York
- Died: February 12, 1978
- Place of death: Queens, New York
Biography
Sarah Brenner was probably born on October 30, 1904, on in the Lower East Side of New York City, one of eight children. Her father was Cecil Marowitz Brenner, and he and his wife had immigrated to the United States only four years before. She remembered her childhood as happy, although the family did not have much money and everyone worked hard. They celebrated the Jewish holidays, practiced the piano, and made up their own games and stories.
After high school, she studied drama at New York University. At some point, she changed her name to Sydney. In 1925, she married Ralph Taylor, the president of the Caswell-Massey fragrance and toiletries company, and changed her name to Sydney Taylor. The couple had one daughter, Joanne.
After her marriage, Taylor had different careers, always in the arts. From 1925 to 1929, she was an actress with the Lenox Hill Players, a semiprofessional theater group in New York City, using the stage name Syd Brenner. She danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company and studied at Graham’s Dance Studio from 1930 to 1935. In 1942, she became a drama counselor and instructor at the Cejwin Camps, one of the first Jewish summer camps established to give Jewish children both recreation in the fresh air and a Hebrew education. She worked at the camp for more than thirty years. During these years, Taylor wrote and choreographed plays.
Taylor published her first book for children, All-of-a-Kind Family, in 1951, based on stories she had told her daughter about growing up in New York. The book, along with its four sequels, depicts a poor but cheerful Jewish family living in an immigrant tenement community. Taylor had written a manuscript with some of the stories and put it away in a box. Years later, while she was away working at the Cejwin Camps, her husband submitted the manuscript to a competition, and her book was selected for publication.
Over the next thirty years Taylor wrote sporadically, publishing a total of ten books and several short stories. Her last two books, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family and Danny Loves a Holiday, were published posthumously. She died of cancer on February 12, 1978, in Queens, New York.
The All-of-a-Kind Family series, which remains in print, presents a lively and accurate sense of immigrant life in New York at the turn of the twentieth century. The Association of Jewish Libraries awards an annual Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award to a writer who has made significant contributions to Jewish children’s literature. In 1979, after her death, Taylor was the first recipient.