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During his tenure at Moody, Taylor also created Evangelical Literature Overseas (ELO), a foundation dedicated to developing and disseminating Christian literature to third world countries.

Administrative responsibilities frequently intruded on quality time with his growing family, often creating tension. However, the combination of editorial mind with fatherly heart sometimes afforded splendid creative opportunities. When he and Margaret read to their children, Taylor lamented that there was no book that covered the whole Bible for youngsters. As their kids brought home Sunday school lessons, he handwrote stories to match the pictures, asking if the stories made sense.

Encouraged by favorable responses, he submitted the material, subsequently published by Moody Press as The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, an all-time bestselling children's book. Then followed a sequel, Stories for the Children's Hour and Devotions for the Children's Hour, a condensation of Chafer's theology courses.

Noting the success of these titles, he recalled his longstanding dissatisfaction with the King James Bible; the text simply didn't make sense to his children. Perhaps he could paraphrase the entire Bible for grown-ups as he'd done for children? Most daunting, but he would try. Commuting by train to Chicago each day, he utilized his travel time for paraphrasing the scriptures into contemporary language, beginning with the New Testament.

His basic text, the American Standard Version of 1901, provided "the most accurate of the word-for-word English translations." For the early drafts, poet Luci Shaw served as stylistic consultant. After several laborious attempts at capturing appropriate expression and cadence, he at last completed it. Acquiring a loan, he published Living Letters in 1962. Sales were patchy, but in 1963 its marketing received an incalculable boost when Billy Graham announced his ambition to offer Living Letters to anyone in his viewing audience desiring a copy.

Tremendously successful, Living Letters received wide distribution under the auspices of Taylor's newly formed company, Tyndale House Publishers—named after William Tyndale, the 16th-century Bible translator—allowing him to quit Moody Press. Tyndale House's second title, a Spanish translation of David Wilkerson's The Cross and the Switchblade, sold 100,000 copies in 1965. In years following, Taylor paraphrased the remainder of Scripture, publishing it as The Living Bible. Endorsed by Jerry Falwell, Bill Bright, Chuck Swindoll, and other evangelical leaders, The Living Bible has been translated into numerous languages.

Taylor held prayer as absolutely central to his life, constantly developing deeper, more disciplined patterns. Models of prayer warriors are George Muller, founder of English orphanages, and "Praying Hyde," missionary to India. In My Life: A Guided Tour, Taylor reflected: "I learned that prayer brings power, but character grows through reading and obeying the Word of God—the Scriptures."

His son, Mark, is currently the president of Tyndale House, publishers of The New Living Translation (a translation rather than a paraphrase), the bestselling Left Behind series, the McGee and Me! video series and a substantial backlist of fiction and nonfiction.

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June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49