Hubert H. McAlexander’s accomplished portrait of Peter Taylor (1917-1994) achieves a remarkable intimacy with this central figure in the history of the American short story and one of the greatest southern writers of his time. McAlexander knits together the facts of Taylor’s life in a compelling, seamless account; his deep and distinguished family roots in Tennessee; his close bonds with writers from three generations, including Allen Tate, Robert Lowell, and James Alan McPherson; his establishment of the dysfunctional family as a force in American literature; and his perseverance as a writer, finally rewarded with the Pulitzer Prize at age seventy. Exhaustively researched and engagingly written. Peter Taylor presents a vivid picture of the man, the artist, and his literary milieu.