Early Los Altos
By Don McDonald, Special to the Town Crier
 Frank Taylor on his tractor with his son Bob and handyman Bill Williams following the plow, taken circa 1940. |
Frank J. Taylor (1894-1972) was a very popular and successful author in his lifetime. But he became largely forgotten in the years following his death, as did his writer-wife, Katherine. He was born Oct. 8, 1894, in South Dakota, the son of Ellen Stobbs and the painter, John S. Taylor. As a high school student, Frank became interested in a journalism career. He attended Stanford University from 1914 to 1917 and served as editor of the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily.
In his last year at Stanford, Frank and some school friends organized the American Field Service ambulance unit that served with the French Army in the Balkans during World War I.
United Press International President Roy Howard hired Frank after the Armistice. UPI assignments made Frank one of the first American war correspondents to cover the revolutions in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The Russian uprising in May 1919, found him behind the border without a passport. The fledgling Soviet Union jailed him for six weeks. Even then, he was able to arrange newsworthy interviews.
After returning to America, Frank married his high school and college classmate Katherine Ames, June 30, 1919. He became Washington correspondent for the New York Globe and headed the capital bureau for Scripps Howard Newspapers.
The Taylor family moved to Los Altos in 1929, where they lived briefly on Mt. Hamilton Avenue. When his freelance career began to prosper, they purchased a 14-acre property in Los Altos Hills on a West Sunset Drive hilltop. There, Frank and Katherine raised three boys: James F. (killed in WWII), Paul A. (Pat) and Robert W. (Bob).
The Taylors celebrated their 50th anniversary in Hawaii in 1969.
Frank added fiction writing to his talents, and gradually became known throughout the United States as a short story writer for such magazines as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s and Country Gentlemen. He continued to write nonfiction, often in collaboration with others. These works included histories for Union Oil Co. United Airlines, Southern Pacific Railroad and Trans Mountain Pipe Line, Canada’s first oil pipeline across the Rockies.
His interest in nature resulted in a number of books, notably “Oh, Ranger!,” which he co-authored. It was considered a standard in National Park literature, telling the story of the national park system in the informal style of the rangers and recognizing their contributions. Frank covered scientific, medical and educational developments, frequently those at Stanford University.
On their Los Altos Hills property, Frank was able to exercise his interest in gardening, and from those hands-on experiences he wrote syndicated gardening columns, which included tips on tractors and other farm machinery. He built a secluded writing studio surrounded by towering pines and redwoods. It had a great fireplace made of stones gathered from the property, and huge files of research material. It ultimately housed 52 scrapbooks of his published articles.
Katherine’s responsibilities as a homemaker reduced her opportunities to write, but on a smaller scale than her husband’s she was also successful. An article in the 1939 Los Altos News described her as a “magazine writer of note.” She wrote magazine articles primarily on natural history themes. Perhaps her best-known book was “Yosemite Trails and Tales.”
Frank wrote or contributed to more than 18 books and wrote 600 articles for 40 different magazines. He recalled that he originally had to produce 30 to 40 articles a year because the pay was so low. During World War II, he reverted to the role of war correspondent and covered the Pacific Theater for Reader’s Digest. In the 1960s, Frank became the magazine’s West Coast staff writer.
As late as 1970 at age 76, Frank was still creating what he called “humor and inspirational think stuff … about a dozen magazine articles a year.” In 1972, Frank died by his own hand at home after suffering from cancer for several years.
A complete bibliography of Taylor’s work is available in the Los Altos History Museum’s files.
McDonald is a member of the Los Altos History Museum Association.
