Judy Taylor obituary: doyenne of children's book publishing

[Celerity]

Youngest woman to become a publishing house director who took a chance on Maurice Sendak and became the foremost authority on Beatrix Potter, dies aged 93

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/judy-taylor-obituary-doyenne-of-childrens-book-publishing-9hw3682mn

https://archive.ph/VF0ek



Late in 1951, returning from Canada where she had been working as a young au pair looking after the children of a judge, Judy Taylor was job-hunting. A friend of the family, Richard (Dick) Hough — who would make his name as a prolific historian, novelist and biographer of Mountbatten — was at that time working for the Bodley Head, in part as its editor of children’s books, and he offered Taylor a temporary job “stuffing envelopes” during the busy Christmas season. This she seemed to have managed competently, with the result that she was offered a permanent job as “office girl”, opening post as well as dispatching it and working the cranky duplicator.

Up to this time Taylor had had a rather unorthodox life. Though she was born and christened Julia Marie, she never went by this name. Her mother died soon after her birth, her father vanished, and she was brought up by an aunt, Gladys, whom she fondly referred to as her mother from then on. Her schooling was erratic, although she ended up at St Paul’s School for Girls in London so that, after the Canadian venture, she brought an unusual elan to her humble position at the Bodley Head. As she progressed there, she acted first as reader for the children’s book manuscripts that came into the office and then as de facto editor of children’s books under Hough’s supervision.

The Bodley Head was owned by Sir Stanley Unwin and occupied offices above his own firm in Museum Street (Taylor used to recall with glee his weekly visits distributing pay packets and frugally requesting the return of the envelopes for further use). The business was up for sale, however, and in 1957 was sold to Max Reinhardt who was to build it into one of the foremost publishers of the postwar years.



Taylor was confirmed as “the children’s book person” but, as Reinhardt perceived, was inexperienced and Kathleen Lines, known always as “K”, worked with her as an associate. K was eminent in the field, having been trained as a librarian in Toronto under the formidable Lillian Smith, and now lived in England as scout and literary adviser; she was a profound adherent to Smith’s doctrine that, quoting Walter de la Mare, “only the best is good enough for children” and from the first imbued Taylor with a belief that a devotion to literary and graphic quality could be combined with commercial success.

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