Ken Taylor The Living Bible

Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor ( 1917-2005) was an American publisher and author. He is best known as the creator of The Living Bible and the founder of Tyndale House, a Christian publishing company and Living Bibles International.

He was born on 8th May in Portland Oregon. Having a pastor for a father a godly mother meant he developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect of the Bible from a very early age.

He graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois in 1938. He then attended Dallas Theological Seminary for 3 years… He received a Theology Masters (Th.M) from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1944.

During the course of his studies he was offered the position of editor for HIS Magazine, headquartered in Chicago. He was a long time member of College Church in Wheaton.

He worked briefly for Clyde Dennis, founder of Good News Publishers on translating Gospel tracts and distributing them overseas. In 1947 he moved to Moody Bible Institute as Director.of Moody Press and stayed until 1963.

In 1954, as rode the commuter train into Chicago ,he began paraphrasing the New Testament into modern English. This was originally to help his 10 children to understand the King James version of the Bible more easily. The children were responding to what they were hearing and Ken thought he was onto something.

He developed a series of books for his children to read. They were eventually published in a book called The Bible in Pictures for Little eyes.

After 7 years of writing and rewriting he submitted the manuscript, called Living Letters to several publishing houses. After having It rejected by ALL of them Ken, with his wife Margaret, decided to use their limited saving to publish it themselves.

Paul Benson, president of Lithocolor Press, offered to print 2,000 copies and allow the Taylors to pay for them when the books sold.

In the early days it was a kitchen table operation. The older daughters typed Ken’s manuscripts, Margaret typed invoices and mailing labels and the younger children filled envelopes and packed books ordered by the bookstores.

In 1962 he exhibited his self published* Living Letters* at the Christian booksellers Association convention. BIlly Graham saw the book the following spring and asked if he could print a special edition to use with his crusades - 500,000 were given away.
Tyndale House Publishers (THP)was born.

In 1967 the Living New Testament was published. In 1971 the complete Living Bible was released to an eager public. It was the best selling book in the USA 3 years in a row!

The profits were put into a charitable trust. All royalties were donated to the Tyndale House Foundation.

He stayed president of THP until 1984 when he handed over to his son Mark. He served as chairman of the board until his death.

Kenneth N. Taylor died 10th June 2005, aged 88, from heart failure.

Ken’s THP mission
minister to the spiritual needs of people, primarily through literature consistent with biblical principles