Born on May 8, 1917 in Portland, Oregon, to parents George, a Presbyterian minister and his wife Charlotte, Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor grew up and finished high school. He then attended Wheaton College, Illinois, graduated, and married a girl from his high school. Together they would have 10 children. After Wheaton, Taylor chose to earn his Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary, but before his studies were through, he was offered the job of editing HIS Magazine. Taylor took this opportunity, returned to Wheaton, and earned his degree from Northern Baptist Seminary.
Intent on spreading the Gospel, he began translating tracts and sending them overseas. This led Taylor to the Moody Bible Institute where he became the director of Moody Press. Focusing on his desire to distribute Christian literature, he formed a foundation called Evangelical Literature Overseas. Taylor also encouraged the reading of Bible stories at home by writing his own books, the first book being The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. Believing that the Bible was too difficult reading for some people, he started paraphrasing the New Testament. Convinced it would be a helpful, worthy cause, Taylor published Living Letters' at his own expense, forming Tyndale House publishing firm to do so.
The success of his work enabled him to leave Moody Press, invest his time fully at Tyndale House, and finish paraphrasing the whole Bible, which he called The Living Bible. Years later he served on the Bible Translation Committee, and they produced the New Living Translation that replaced The Living Bible. After decades of following what he believed to be the Lord's plan for him, Taylor died of heart failure on June 10, 2005.
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