| Samuel W. Taylor | |
| Birth Name: | Samuel Woolley Taylor |
| Birth Date: | 5 February 1907 |
| Birth Place: | Provo, Utah, U.S. |
| Spouse: | Gay Dimick |
| Relatives: | John W. Taylor (father) Janet Maria Woolley (mother) John Taylor (paternal grandfather) |
Samuel Woolley Taylor (February 5, 1907 - September 26, 1997) was an American novelist, scriptwriter, and historian.
He wrote the short story "A Situation of Gravity" in the May 22, 1943 issue of Liberty magazine on which the Disney movies The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), The Absent-Minded Professor (1988) TV episode starring Harry Anderson, The Absent-Minded Professor: Trading Places (1989) TV episode, and Flubber (1997) starring Robin Williams were based.
Taylor was born in Provo, Utah to Janet "Nettie" Maria Woolley and John W. Taylor, the son of John Taylor, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1880 to 1887. Samuel's father was a former member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, having left in 1905 in protest over the church's Second Manifesto abandonment of polygamy the previous year. Despite his father's ecclesiastical history and excommunication in 1911, Samuel was raised in the LDS Church. He later wrote a biography of his father called Family Kingdom, and one of his grandfather titled The Kingdom or Nothing.[1]
In the late 1920s Taylor attended Brigham Young University (BYU) studying journalism.[1] He became editor of the student newspaper Y News, in which he also wrote a weekly column called "Taylored Topics." After covering a story about rum-running on campus, Taylor was questioned by school administration to divulge his sources, but he refused. After a temporary suspension, he returned to his previous position with the paper, and returned to upsetting administration with his writing.[2] After six suspensions, he later recalled that he could "take a hint" and dropped out of BYU. By then he had already published five articles in nationally distributed magazines. He decided to "escape" Utah and followed Gay Dimick, a fellow BYU student, back to her native California. They married there in 1934 and established their longtime home in Redwood City.[1]
He served as an officer in the United States Army Air Forces public relations office in the European theatre of World War II.
He was awarded an honorary lifetime membership by the Association for Mormon Letters at the 1994 AML Awards.
In 1942, the first film based on one of Taylor's stories, The Man Who Returned to Life, was released. This was later followed in 1951 by The Man with My Face based on his novel of the same name.
His first foray into screenwriting began with Bait in 1954.
In contrast to the serious nature of these films, Taylor was also the author of two short stories, published in Liberty weekly magazine, on which the Disney movies The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), The Absent-Minded Professor (1988) Disney TV episode, The Absent-Minded Professor: Trading Places (1989) Disney TV episode, and Flubber (1997) were based. "A Situation of Gravity" was reprinted in the 1996 collection Take My Advice, Mr. President!
He is sometimes incorrectly credited as the writer of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo, though that screenplay was actually written by Samuel A. Taylor.[3]
Those novels not dealing specifically with Mormonism:
Taylor was an early proponent of a Mormon literature in essays such as "Peculiar People, Positive Thinkers and the Prospects of Mormon Literature" (Dialogue, 1967) and "Little Did She Realize: Writing for the Mormon Market" (Dialogue, 1969), wherein he decried the current state of the literature and called for greater artistry and realism. Taylor continued to publish criticism related to Mormon culture in Dialogue as well as Sunstone magazine.