Obit

This just in via the ALSC listserv:

It is with sadness that we report that Theodore Taylor, author of numerous award-winning titles, including Harcourt's Billy the Kid, The Weirdo, and Timothy of the Cay, passed away this morning at his home in Laguna Beach.

A former merchant marine in World War II, he worked as a journalist before becoming a press agent in Hollywood. He was an associate producer and worked on seventeen major films, ending with Tora! Tora! Tora!

Talyor is perhaps best known for his modern classic, The Cay (1969). Over the course of twenty-three years following the publication of The Cay, Taylor received more than 20,000 letters from readers requesting a sequel to the beloved bestseller. In 1993 he published Timothy of the Cay, a prequel-sequel, which garnered many accolades, including an NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, an ALA Best Books for Young Adults, the Judy Lopez Memorial Award, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age