Who Was She?

Written by Bayard Taylor

Narrated by Cathy Dobson

Bayard Taylor (1825 - 1878) was an American writer and poet, best known for his translations of German literature, including his acclaimed Faust.

Who Was She? is a romantic mystery. The narrator is on vacation and discovers what he takes to be a secluded glen unknown to anyone else. But one day, he finds a wilted bunch of flowers and a book on the flat rock where he always sits. The book contains sketches and musings, clearly by an unmarried woman. The narrator finds a way to return the book, with his own message and an unlikely and mysterious correspondence begins, from which it becomes clear that this is the start of a strange unknown quest. But one with no map, no certain destination and few clues. The only important (and multi-layered) question is "who was she?"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Door Consulting
• Release date: Jul 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781467681971

Bayard Taylor

Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was an American poet, literary critic, and travel writer. Born in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, he was raised in a wealthy family of Quaker farmers. At 17, he began working as a printer’s apprentice and soon turned to poetry under the recommendation of Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Finding success with his first volume, Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and other Poems (1844), Taylor became a prominent travel writer, visiting Europe and sending accounts of his experience to such publications as the Tribune and The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout his career, he traveled to Egypt, Palestine, China, and Japan, interviewing such figures as commodore Matthew Perry and German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Beginning in 1862, Taylor served for one year as a U.S. diplomat in St. Petersburg, publishing his first novel in 1863. Over the next several years, he traveled across the American west with his wife Maria, publishing Colorado: A Summer Trip (1867), a collection of travel essays. His late work Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania (1870), originally serialized in The Atlantic, was reviewed poorly upon publication, but has since been recognized as America’s first gay novel.