Author John M. Taylor was interviewed for BookCast by Fairfax County Public Library Director Sam Clay. BookCast is sponsored by Virginia Commerce Bank through the Fairfax Library Foundation. He will be discussing his book William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s Right Hand, on September 19 at the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library.

• Local author John M. Taylor is the author of eight books in history and biography. The most recent is a reassessment of Robert E. Lee titled Duty Faithfully Performed: Robert E. Lee and His Critics. His immediate previous work, Confederate Raider: Raphael Semmes of the Alabama, was a 1995 selection of the History Book Club. He has also written a biography of his father, General Maxwell Taylor.



• The author was born at West Point, N.Y. He graduated from Williams College with honors in history in 1952; he earned a master’s degree in history from George Washington University. From 1952 until 1987 he was employed by agencies of the U.S. government including the State Department and CIA.



• William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s Right Hand was published in 1991 and a documentary based on the book aired in 2000 on American Public Television.



• Taylor is a frequent book reviewer for The Washington Times and a contributing editor of Military History Quarterly. With his wife he was co-editor of the Dictionary of Military Terms: A Guide to the Language of Warfare and Military Institutions.