Shiloh (novel) - Background and Publishing

Background and Publishing

Born in 1933 in Anderson, Indiana, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was raised in Indiana and Illinois in the 1930s during the Great Depression. During her childhood she was hardly given any toys. Instead, with her parents reading to her every night, books formed a major part of her early years—"the happiest part". Her parents read a variety of literature to her, including Bible stories, The Wind in the Willows, and Mark Twain's novels, until she was 14. After she became a parent, she read to her children in the mornings because of their evening activities. At 16, Naylor wrote a short story for a church magazine, and in her early thirties she published her first book. She has published over 100 books. When she wrote and published Shiloh, her 65th novel, she was living in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband Rex, a speech pathologist whom she married in May 1960. She has two adult sons and four grandchildren.

Naylor writes books for children, teens, and adults. Writing sporadically, Naylor typically takes several years to finish a book. With about 10 notebooks next to her workspace, she writes down story ideas and character traits when she thinks of them. She considered Shiloh to be a deviation from the norm because she finished the first draft in just eight weeks.

Edited by Jon Landman, Shiloh was published by Atheneum Books on September 30, 1991. The novel has been translated into at least 10 languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Swedish.