Richard Taylor

The Duration is a short novel by Richard Taylor set on a fictional newspaper, "The Observer," in San Francisco during World War II. When Mark Hanson, Ph.D., was cleaning out his mother’s things after her death, he found the manuscript—Taylor was married to Hanson’s mother. Apparently Taylor had only sent the book out to one publisher, an unsolicited approach to Charles Scribner & Sons in 1964. It sat in it box, still in the brown paper wrapper in which it had been returned, unopened until 2009.

Richard Taylor spent his whole life in newspapers. He was a correspondent for the "Los Angeles Times," during WWII and eventually became editor of "The Californian" in El Cajon.

After Hanson found the manuscript, he asked his friend and colleague, writer Walter G. Meyer to take a look at it. Meyer made some minor edits and suggested they list it for sale. The manuscript is an interesting look at life for a 4-F reporter during World War II and life at newspapers in the 1940s.