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Gladys Bagg Taber, 1899-1980
Nature mystic, Author
Gladys Bagg Taber was born on April 12, 1899, in Colorado Springs and spent her life writing about the every-day simple things in life for her wonderful Stillmeadow and Still Cove books. She is the author of 59 books and through her writing, we experience the passing seasons, a passion for animals, gardening, cooking, and homemaking. Her books are filled with practical advice and her common sense view of the way things are. She also wrote the Diary of Domesticity column for the Lady's Home Journal in the late 1930's, and Butternut Wisdom for Family Circle through the 1960's.
Gladys graduated from Wellesley in 1920; took an M.A. at Lawrence College, Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1921; and did graduate work at Columbia University. Taber also wrote fiction novels, however this is not the work which gained her the loyal fans she has attracted over the years; rather, her magazine columns and the books she made from them are the cornerstone of her success.
Flower A. Newhouse shared this background of Gladys in one of her talks:
She was a teacher of journalism at the University of Columbia in New York City. She also writes extremely well. She says that after she and her best friend, who was her college chum, became widows approximately within a year of each other, they decided to live together. Jill, her friend, raised three children. Gladys Taber raised her one daughter, and these four enjoyed the place that these two women bought called Stillmeadow.
Much of Taber's writing was about her life at Stillmeadow, a 17th-century farmhouse in Southbury, Connecticut.
Flower includes Gladys Taber in her list among nature mystics who use soul language in their work. Taber was one of her favorites due to her 'sense of beautiful expression' reflected in her work.
Among present-day writers who use soul language are, among the nature mystics—Hal Borland, Gladys Taber, Sam Campbell, Donald Culrose Peattie. Read any of their writings and they inspire you with the depth that you receive when you read a true and most challenging and inspiring book.
Reverend Flower A. Newhouse, The Language of the Soul