author
Norman Taylor
1883–1967
A botanist and gardening writer with a gift for making plant knowledge useful, he became best known for creating a long-lasting encyclopedia that helped generations of home gardeners. His work also ranged from wildflowers and cacti to dictionary editing and botanical research.
1 Audiobook
Botany: The Science of Plant Life
by Norman Taylor
About the author
Born in 1883, Norman Taylor was an English-born American botanist, horticulturist, and author. He is chiefly remembered for Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening, a widely used reference work that kept his name familiar to gardeners long after its first publication.
His career joined practical gardening with serious plant study. Sources from the New York Botanical Garden describe him as the author of important horticultural works and note that he served as botanical editor for Webster’s New International Dictionary and later for The American Heritage Dictionary. He also wrote on wildflowers and other plant subjects, showing a talent for explaining botany in a way general readers could use.
Taylor’s papers are preserved by the New York Botanical Garden, a sign of the lasting value of his work in horticulture and botanical writing. Although not a household name today, he helped shape the way many readers and gardeners learned about plants in the twentieth century.