Taylor, Sydney, 1904-1978

Sydney Taylor was born Sydney Brenner in New York Lower East Side on October 30, 1904, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. She attended high school in the Bronx. After graduating, she worked as a secretary and at night, from 1925-1929, worked as an actress with the Lenox Hill Players. Her work with the Players led to an interest in dance and dramatics. She studied dance with Margarete Wallmann, and danced with Martha Graham's troup from about 1932 to 1935.

In 1925 she married Ralph Taylor, president of Caswell-Massey, Ltd. and after her daughter's birth in 1935 spent the next seven years as a homemaker before resuming her interest in dance and dramatics. She taught at Cejwin Camps for over 30 years, writing, directing, and choreographing plays and dance presentations. She died in 1978.

Taylor's first book was written for her daughter. The book, All of a Kind Family (1951), based on her own childhood, was the first in a series of four. Taylor wrote several other books and numerous short stories for juvenile publications, many of which have a Jewish theme and background.

Sydney Taylor (October 30, 1904 – February 12, 1978) was an American author.

She was born Sarah Brenner in New York City to Jewish immigrant parents. Her parents and eldest sister Ella emigrated in 1900 to the United States and settled in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as many Jewish families did. Her stories based on life in her large family are chronicled in a set of five books known as the All-of-a-Kind Family series. "During the second half of the twentieth century [the books in the series] were the most widely known books about American Jewish children."

Her summers were spent as counselor and administrator at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, New York, where she was known as "Aunt Syd". Several of her siblings were associated with the camp as well. She shared her family and its stories with post-World War II children who were largely from second- and third-generation Jewish families.

She died of cancer at age 73. Her husband Ralph established The Sydney Taylor Book Award in her honor.

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