Frances Taylor Patterson

Frances Taylor Patterson
Frances Taylor Patterson, from a 1920 publication
Frances Taylor Patterson, from a 1920 publication
Born
Frances Taylor

July 10, 1893
Dobbs Ferry, New York, U.S.
Died1971
Occupation(s)Writer, lecturer

Frances Taylor Patterson (July 10, 1893 – 1971) was an American writer and lecturer. She taught an early screenwriting class at Columbia University,[1][2] wrote two textbooks on screenwriting, and several other books. She published essays, fiction, criticism, and poetry in major national magazines, especially Commonweal.

Early life and education

Frances Taylor was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, one of the five children of James Leo Taylor and Rose Helena Dennen Taylor.[3][4] Her father was a postmaster and newspaper editor.[5][6] She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1914.[7][8]

Career

In 1917, Patterson began teaching the Columbia University course titled "Photoplay Composition",[9][10] when the original lecturer Victor Freeburg left for military service.[11] She taught the course into the 1940s,[12][13] for Columbia's Extension Program[14] and as a home study course. She wrote two textbooks on the subject of screenwriting.[11] She advocated for the value of original screenplays over adaptations from literary or theatrical texts, explaining that "the public will be enriched by seeing on the screen stories composed precisely for the camera, stories that take into consideration the mechanical aspect of talking pictures today."[15]

Patterson wrote essays, fiction, poetry, and screenplays, but the only film produced from a Patterson screenplay was Broken Hearts (1926). "No matter what preconceived ideas you may have as to what Hollywood is like, when you get to that famous Mecca of the movies you are apt to find that it is quite otherwise," she wrote in 1931. "If you expect it to be fast, you will find that it is slow. If you expect fun, you will find plenty of hard work. The one constant among so many variables would seem to be the sun. You expect Hollywood to be sunny, and it is sunny."[16]

Patterson was a member of the National Board of Review, and on the editorial staff of the board's magazine.[17] She lectured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[18] and in a radio address to the National Council of Catholic Women.[19] She was a member of the Edward MacDowell Association,[20] and the Friends of the Cardinal Hayes Library.[21] In 1959, she addressed the Rosary Society at St. Brigid's Church in Westbury.[22]

Publications

Books

Poems, essays, and stories

  • "Whom the Gods Destroy" and "Whiteface" (1917)[30]
  • "A New Art in an Old University" (1920, Photoplay)[31]
  • "Nanook of the North" (1922, The New Republic)[32]
  • "A Prize Paradox" (1925, The New York Times)[33]
  • "Metropolitan-Oats" (1926, Musical Courier)[34]
  • "Stall Talk" (1926, Musical Courier)[35]
  • "Ghostways" (1927, Scribner's Magazine)[36]
  • "The Sedulous Ape" (1927, The New Republic)[37]
  • "Music in the Movies" (1927, Commonweal)[38]
  • "On Being Young" (1928, Harper's Magazine)[39]
  • "Gesture" (1930, Scribner's Magazine)[40]
  • "Moth Dust" (1930, North American Review)[41]
  • "Will Hollywood Move to Broadway?" (1930, The New Republic)
  • "The Hollywood Scene" (1931, The National Board of Review Magazine)[16]
  • "The End of Manhattan" (1933, Commonweal)[42]
  • "The Praying Castle" (1933, Commonweal)[43]
  • "Grace Before Thought" (1933, North American Review)[44]
  • "On Reading the Smart Magazines" (1933, The American Spectator)[45]
  • "Toward Morning" (1934, Commonweal)[46]
  • "The Ball and the Cross" (1934, The Catholic World)[47]
  • "Strange Slumbering" (1934, North American Review)[48]
  • "Song of the Rood" (1935, Commonweal)[49]
  • "I Have Waited" (1936, America: A Catholic Review of the Week)[50]
  • "A Guide to the Study of the Screen Version of Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff" (1937, Photoplay Studies)[51]
  • "End of Rural Manhattan" (1937, Commonweal)[52]
  • "Bridges" (1937, The Catholic World)[53]
  • "The Author and Hollywood" (1937, North American Review)[54]
  • "The Twenty-Fifth of March" (1938, The Catholic World)[55]
  • "Sketch in Charcoal" (1938, Commonweal)[56]
  • "Music is Yours" (1938, Commonweal)[57]
  • "Nourishment for Virtue" (1939, Commonweal)[58]
  • "Bread and Cinemas" (1939, North American Review)[59]
  • "Table for One" (1940, Harper's Magazine)[60]
  • "Cold Harvest" (1940, Commonweal)[61]
  • "Harbor View" (1941, The Yale Review)[62]
  • "Skyscraper Range" (1941, America: A Catholic Review of the Week)[63]
  • "Chanty for a Pilot of the Ocean-Air" (1944, Queen's Quarterly)[64]
  • "Mountain at Midnight" (1948, Queen's Quarterly)[65]
  • "Greenling" (1949, Queen's Quarterly)[66]
  • "Birds Above Niagara" (1950, Queen's Quarterly)[67]
  • "The Cloud of Witnesses" (1951, Queen's Quarterly)[68]

Personal life

Frances Taylor married educator Rowland A. Patterson in 1916.[7] Her husband died in 1954.[69] She lived in Brooklyn in her later years, and had a summer home in Mount Washington, Massachusetts.[70] She died in 1971, in her late seventies.[71] Her niece Maryrose Hanavan was the first woman to work as a traffic engineer in New York City.[72]

References

  1. ^ Polan, Dana (2007). "Beginnings of American Film Study". Looking past the screen : case studies in American film history and method. Internet Archive. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-8223-3807-9.
  2. ^ Decherney, Peter (2000). "Inventing Film Study and Its Object at Columbia University, 1915-1938". Film History. 12 (4): 443–460. doi:10.2979/FIL.2000.12.3.443. ISSN 0892-2160. JSTOR 3815350.
  3. ^ Curtis, Georgina Pell; Elder, Benedict (1944). The American Catholic Who's who. NC News Service. p. 360.
  4. ^ Hamersly, Lewis Randolph; Leonard, John William; Mohr, William Frederick; Knox, Herman Warren; Holmes, Frank R.; Downs, Winfield Scott (1938). Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 859.
  5. ^ 1900 and 1910 United States Censuses, via Ancestry.
  6. ^ "Mrs. James L. Taylor, Ex-Member of Hospital Board". The Herald Statesman. 1947-11-18. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b "Miss Frances Taylor Weds". The New York Times. 1916-12-01. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Hoehn, Matthew (1948). Catholic authors : contemporary biographical sketches. Internet Archive. Newark, N. J. : St. Mary's Abbey. pp. 609–610.
  9. ^ "Woman Teaches Movie Writing to Columbia Varsity Students". Great Falls Tribune. 1919-11-30. p. 34. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (1920). A Course in Photoplay Composition, Consisting of Fifteen Lessons on the Technique of Scenario Writing, Prepared by Frances Taylor Patterson ... Columbia University.
  11. ^ a b Polan, Dana. "Frances Taylor Patterson". –Women Film Pioneers Project. Archived from the original on 2025-05-21. Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  12. ^ "Columbia Course". The New York Times. October 9, 1927. p. 7. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  13. ^ Browning, Irving (May 1945). "University Film Courses". American Cinematographer. 26 (5): 156–157 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Grieveson, Lee (2008). Inventing film studies. Internet Archive. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-8223-4289-2.
  15. ^ Kelly, Mary (December 7, 1930). "Columbia's Cinema Class". The New York Times. p. 6. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  16. ^ a b Patterson, Frances Taylor. "The Hollywood Scene" The National Board of Review Magazine (January 1931): 6-8.
  17. ^ Masthead, National Board of Review Magazine 11(1)(January 1936): 3; via Internet Archive.
  18. ^ "Lectures for Which Fees are Charged". Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 23 (4): 23. April 1928 – via Internet Archive.
  19. ^ "Story of Heroism". The Catholic World in Pictures: 1. March 23, 1940 – via The Catholic News Archive.
  20. ^ Edward MacDowell Association; Edward MacDowell Association (1961). Annual report. Boston Public Library. New York, N.Y.: The Association. p. 4.
  21. ^ "We Too Are the People". The Catholic Library World. 10 (7): 232. April 1939 – via Internet Archive.
  22. ^ "Author to Address Rosarians of St. Brigid's Westbury". The Tablet. 1959-01-31. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  23. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (1921). Cinema craftsmanship; a book for photoplaywrights. Cornell University Library. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company.
  24. ^ "How to Write a Movie; Two Books by Scenario Writer Tell the Tricks of the Trade". Brooklyn Eagle. 1920-11-13. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (1928). Scenario and Screen. Harcourt, Brace.
  26. ^ "Book Reviews". The Writer. 41 (7): 195. July 1929 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ^ "New Books". The Catholic World. 140 (837): 376. December 1934 – via Internet Archive.
  28. ^ "An Indian Saint (review)". The New York Times. October 28, 1934. p. 19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  29. ^ "Book Reviews". The Catholic Educator. 27 (10): 646. June 1957 – via Internet Archive.
  30. ^ Masterpieces: A Dobbs Book of Verse. Misses Masters' School. 1917. pp. 37–39.
  31. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. “A New Art in an Old University” Photoplay (Jan. 1920): 65, 124, via Internet Archive.
  32. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (August 9, 1922). "Nanook of the North". The New Republic. Vol. 31, no. 401. pp. 306–307 – via Internet Archive.
  33. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (January 25, 1925). "A Prize Paradox"". The New York Times. p. 5. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  34. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (January 14, 1926). "Metropolitan-Oats". Musical Courier. 92 (2): 6 – via Internet Archive.
  35. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (April 1, 1926). "Stall Talk". Musical Courier. 92 (13): 12 – via Internet Archive.
  36. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (December 1927). "Ghostways". Scribner's Magazine. 82 (6): 742–751 – via Internet Archive.
  37. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "The Sedulous Ape" The New Republic 51(657)(July 6, 1927): 177-179. via Internet Archive.
  38. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (September 28, 1927). "Music in the Movies". The Commonweal. 6 (21): 494 – via Internet Archive.
  39. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (December 1928). "On Being Young". Harper's Magazine. Vol. 158, no. 943. p. 122 – via Internet Archive.
  40. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (April 1930). "Gesture". Scribner's Magazine. 87 (4): 433–445 – via Internet Archive.
  41. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Moth Dust." The North American Review (1821-1940) 230, no. 2 (1930): 237.
  42. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "The End of Manhattan" The Commonweal 18(21)(September 22, 1933): 487-488. via Internet Archive
  43. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (December 22, 1933). "The Praying Castle". The Commonweal. 19 (8): 209–211 – via Internet Archive.
  44. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (1933). "Grace before Thought". The North American Review. 235 (6): 545. ISSN 0029-2397. JSTOR 25114226.
  45. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (September 1933). "On Reading the Smart Magazines". The American Spectator: 6 – via Internet Archive.
  46. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Toward Morning" The Commonweal 19(20)(March 16, 1934): 546-548.
  47. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (December 1934). "The Ball and the Cross". The Catholic World. 140 (837): 346–350 – via Internet Archive.
  48. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (November 1934). "Strange Slumbering". The North American Review. 238 (5): 405 – via Internet Archive.
  49. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (September 13, 1935). "Song of the Rood". The Commonweal. 22 (20): 459 – via Internet Archive.
  50. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (May 16, 1936). "I Have Waited". America: A Catholic Review of the Week. 55 (6): 130 – via Internet Archive.
  51. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (February 1937). "A Guide to the Study of the Screen Version of Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff". Photoplay Studies. 3 (2) – via Internet Archive.
  52. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "End of Rural Manhattan" The Commonweal 26(16)(August 13, 1937): 383. via Internet Archive.
  53. ^ The Catholic World 1937: Vol 145 Table of Contents. American Periodicals Series III. 1937 – via Internet Archive.
  54. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (Autumn 1937). "The Author and Hollywood". The North American Review. 244 (1): 77–87 – via Internet Archive.
  55. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (March 1938). "The Twenty-Fifth of March". The Catholic World. 146: 657 – via Internet Archive.
  56. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (May 27, 1938). "Sketch in Charcoal". The Commonweal. 28 (5): 120–122 – via Internet Archive.
  57. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (March 18, 1938). "Music is Yours". The Commonweal. 27 (21): 573–574 – via Internet Archive.
  58. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Nourishment for Virtue" The Commonweal 30(23)(September 29, 1939): 516. via Internet Archive.
  59. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (Winter 1938–1939). "Bread and Cinemas". The North American Review. 246 (2): 259–266 – via Internet Archive.
  60. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (1940). "Table for One, a Story". Harper's Magazine. Vol. 181. p. 204.
  61. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (June 6, 1940). "Cold Harvest". The Commonweal. 32 (7): 143 – via Internet Archive.
  62. ^ Clarke, George Herbert, ed. (1943). The New Treasury Of War Poetry. Internet Archive (Houghton Mifflin ed.). Boston: Literary classics Incorporated. p. 128.
  63. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor (May 17, 1941). "Skyscraper Range". America: A Catholic Review of the Week. 65 (6): 160 – via Internet Archive.
  64. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Chanty for a Pilot of the Ocean-Air (Verse)." Queen's Quarterly 51 (1944): 41.
  65. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Mountain at Midnight (Verse)." Queen's Quarterly 55 (1948): 140.
  66. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Greenling (Verse)." Queen's Quarterly 56 (1949): 72.
  67. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "Birds Above Niagara (Verse)." Queen's Quarterly 57 (1950): 33.
  68. ^ Patterson, Frances Taylor. "The Cloud of Witnesses (Verse)." Queen's Quarterly 58 (1951): 91.
  69. ^ "R. Patterson, 66, City School Aide; Athletic Program Organizer, P. S. A. L. Secretary Dies -- Lectured at Colleges Here". The New York Times. May 25, 1954. p. 21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  70. ^ "Obituary for James L. Taylor". The Berkshire Eagle. 1969-08-26. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  71. ^ Taylor, Charles (1984). Growing on: Ideas about Aging. Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-442-28278-3.
  72. ^ "Woman Engineer Smooths Traffic; Maryrose Hanavan, Ex-Officer in Waves, Works for City on Vehicular Chaos". 1949-08-09. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
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