Bert Leston Taylor began writing a humorous column for the Chicago Journal in 1899. The column soon moved to the Tribune, where it attracted a large and devoted audience. Among newspaper people, especially in Chicago, his initials--B. L. T.--and his column-- "A Line o' Type or Two"--are still readily recognized. Taylor is remembered for his literary standards and for creating a column format that permitted reader participation.

Taylor's father, Albert Otis Taylor, had been a sailor on whaling ships and a captain in the navy during the Civil War, retiring in 1869. Captain Taylor worked from then until his death in 1918 at the New York Herald, much of the time in the advertising department. Captain Taylor met his wife, Katherine White Taylor, in Dublin, Ireland. Their eldest son, Bert Leston Taylor, was born 13 November 1866 while the family was visiting relatives in Goshen, Massachusetts.

In his columns, Taylor recalled...