page_title: Bert Leston Taylor
section_title: Chicago Tribune (1901–1921)
hierarchical_section_title: Bert Leston Taylor / Chicago Tribune (1901–1921)
caption_attribution_description: English: House of Bert Leston Taylor, Glencoe, IL. c.1916. Robert Seyfarth, architect
context_page_description: Bert Leston Taylor was an American columnist, humorist, poet, and author.
  Bert Leston Taylor became a journalist at seventeen, a librettist at twenty-one, and a successfully published author at thirty-five. At the height of his literary career, he was a central literary figure of the early 20th century Chicago renaissance as well as one of the most celebrated columnists in the United States.
context_section_description: Editors at the Chicago Tribune noted his originality and growing popularity at the Journal and so made him a generous offer. Taylor accepted, and created and conducted his own column at the Tribune called "A Line o' Type or Two". He worked on the top floor of the new Tribune building, which was a seventeen-story skyscraper built in 1902 on the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets referred to as "Tribune corner". He conducted his column autonomously with little supervision for two years before resigning in 1903. He and Emma relocated back east and bought a home in Cos Cob (Greenwich) Connecticut while their daughter, Alva, attended Harvard. Taylor first wrote a column for the Morning Telegraph called "The Way of the World".  Then in 1904, he became one of the contributing editors of Puck, replacing W.C. Whitney who had died that year. During this time back east, he also contributed articles to the New York Sun. Meanwhile, editors at the Tribune met little success in sustaining the same quality of Taylor's "Line". James Keeley, a hiring manager at the Tribune, made a lucrative offer to Taylor in hope to lure him back to the paper. Taylor accepted the offer and returned to Chicago in 1909 where he resumed conducting his column without interruption until his death.
  The brand of journalism Taylor used and improved upon began in 1883 by Eugene Field with his "Sharps and Flats" column in the Chicago Daily News, , and later in 1895 by Tribune writer Henry "Butch" White. Taylor's satirical verse was a bit more polished than Field’s plain style, and Taylor covered a greater variety of topics. He arranged his column as a mélange of whimsical paragraphs, amusing excerpts from rural papers, and light verse interspersed with submissions from outside contributors; indeed, it was considered an honor to be selected for the "Line". Many of the selected contributions came from some of the best-known writers of the time who submitted their work using only their initials or pseudonyms such as "Pan" (Keith Preston of The Chicago Daily News) or "Riquarius" (Richard Atwater of The Chicago Evening Post) for example. Submissions came in the form of verse, funny clippings from other newspapers, or absurd observations by "gadders" (tourists) during their travels. Taylor received anywhere from eighty to a hundred letters a day, most addressed simply to "B.L.T." or "A Line o' Type or Two" at the Tribune, and he managed to read every one. He also took meticulous care of the column's editing and layout, correcting all typographical and grammatical errors as well as orchestrating the flow of elements: the upper half of the column contained whimsical philosophy in the form of essay and light verse, followed by pure humorous pieces in the lower half poking fun at the "so-called human race". His goal was to "send [the reader] away smiling". Taylor's editorial opinion and style often conflicted with the Tribune's editorial policy, but because of columns' popularity and unique originality, editorial difference was always pardoned; in fact, this editorial disparity was one of the reasons that made the column so appealing.
  Taylor set the standard for literary excellence and had a disdain for trite and poor writing (including his own), and he would write about sending all bad writing, or “canned bromides,” off to the “cannery” where each bad piece was placed into a numbered canister. He ended the column using only his initials, "B.L.T.", which served as Taylor's trademark and were referred to by critics of the day as "the most famous initials in America". Taylor's journalistic excellence inspired other great columnists including Franklin Pierce Adams (F.P.A.), nationally known for his "The Conning Tower" column in the New York Post. Simeon Strunsky, columnist for The New York Times, called Taylor "a star of the first magnitude". By the time of his death, Taylor's "A Line o' Type or Two" column was syndicated throughout the country and overseas.
  During his employment at the Tribune, Taylor owned a townhouse in downtown Chicago, but later had an estate construc
caption: Taylor's house in Glencoe, IL (c. 1916),
   Robert Seyfarth, architect)
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