“I will be leaving Essence to do what at this juncture in my life has become a larger work for me — building the National Cares Mentoring Movement, which I founded as Essence Cares and today is my deepest passion.”
—Susan L. Taylor (From automated email as reported by NY Times - December 28, 2007)

Susan L. Taylor has been the driving force behind Essence Magazine for almost 4 decades.   Taylor, 61, joined Essence in 1970.   A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Taylor was the founder of her own company, Nequai Cosmetics, before becoming Essence’s fashion and beauty editor and, in 1981, its editor-in-chief.

In 1999 Taylor became the first African American woman to receive The Henry Johnson Fisher Award from the Magazine Publishers of America, the magazine industry's highest honor. In 2002 Taylor was inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame, which celebrates the career-long records of excellence, creativity and impact of a select group of highly influential magazine journalists. Taylor's visionary leadership was acknowledged when the NAACP presented her with its first President's Award in 2006. She is an avid supporter of a host of organizations dedicated to moving the Black community forward. Her passion and focus are on creating equity in education and turning around the nation's failing schools, which, she says are "the pipeline to prison."

Taylor has received more than a dozen honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, including Lincoln University, Spelman College, Dillard University, Bennett College for Women, the University of Delaware and her alma mater, Fordham University.

All About Love: Favorite Selections from In The Spirit on Living Fearlessly
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Hardcover: 212 pages
Publisher: Urban Books (January 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1601621140
ISBN-13: 978-1601621146
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.4 x 1 inches

All About Love draws from the breath of writing Susan Taylor has shared with her millions of readers since her first column appeared in Essence.   In this collection, she has gathered personal favorites and these of Essence readers.  Many are expanded.

Shedding the old, dead skin of anger, bitterness and regret, forgiving ourselves and others, opening our hearts to love and striving to live in harmony with the whole of life are just a few of the themes explored in these inspirational writings.

All About Love is all about relationships, about active caring and out commitment to personal transformations and social change, to strengthening our families and communities, to wealth building, and the commitment to justice and sustaining all God's children.  This long -awaited treasury of writings is about keeping strong our faith in God in the face of all challenges.
 

In The Spirit
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Hardcover: 110 pages
Publisher: Amistad (October 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1567430325
ISBN-13: 978-1567430325
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces

Taylor, the editor-in-chief of Essence , mixes personal anecdotes, black pride and an upbeat spirituality in these brief essays, many of them reprinted from her magazine. Though the wisdom she dispenses is hardly original, her direct style and warmth should reach her target audience of African American women. "We'll never feel content if our happiness depends on someone else's behavior," Taylor writes, noting that she has learned to measure success not by wealth but through "happiness, personal satisfaction and being of service to others." Her most powerful essays are the most self-revealing: in one clearly painful recollection, she concludes that her father's furious reaction to her surreptitious meeting with a young man humiliated her but may ultimately have saved her. "What I felt was a shameful experience that put a damper on my sexuality actually prevented me from becoming pregnant as a teenager." Although Taylor regularly invokes a Christian God, that God is nondenominational and her exhortations are not to doctrine but to a more personal faith.  —Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 

Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives
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co-authored with husband, Khephra Burns

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor; 1 Anchor edition (January 19, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385483783
ISBN-13: 978-0385483780

Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives is a very personal collection of inspirational writings gathered by the husband and wife team of Khephra Burns and Susan L. Taylor from more than a hundred different sources, representing the wisdom of diverse cultures throughout the world that have helped to shape their spiritual life. Introduced by a moving essay describing Susan and Khephra's spiritual coming-of-age, and informed by scores of narrative bridges by the authors explaining and annotating the selections they include, the collection spotlights the wisdom of the ages that has been at the core of the author's spiritual growth over the past twenty years.

Organized under a dozen different subject areas, from love and forgiveness to fear, death, prayer and meditation, this enthralling collection includes passages not only from the traditional sacred texts of the world's major religions--the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, Bhagavad Gita and the teachings of Buddha-but from African proverbs and the writings of animists, mystics, poets, seers and songwriters elucidating the oneness of being. Among the authors included are Christian mystic Howard Thurman, Maya Angelou, Kahlil Gibran, Deepak Chopra, Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, Black Elk, Lao-Tzu, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, John Coltrane, African shaman Malidoma Some, and many more.

Confirmation is a rich and varied treasury of spiritual delights that will be nothing less than a sacred feast to Susan Taylor's devoted fans and followers.
 

Lessons in Living
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Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Anchor (January 20, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385483791
ISBN-13: 978-0385483797
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches

Taylor, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, in this new collection of inspirational writings, develops themes that marked her earlier book, In the Spirit, a collection of her popular columns. Intermingled with personal details of career, divorce, parenting and remarriage are Taylor's strategies for finding inner peace amid the stress of contemporary living. Borrowing from diverse cultural and religious traditions and emphasizing the necessity of honoring oneself, Taylor espouses a practical spirituality: "Life is our finishing school." When she describes the spiritual armor she dons each day in her busy life, she projects a quiet assurance that has won her a wide audience, particularly in the black community. This affirmative philosophy is attractively packaged with ruled blank pages at the end for readers' personal use. 100,000 first printing; author tour; first serial to Essence; Literary Guild alternate.  —Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 

Essence: 50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans
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by Patricia M. Hinds (Author), Susan L. Taylor (Author)

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Essence; Rev Upd edition (January 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1933405295
ISBN-13: 978-1933405292
Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches

Essence Books presents a revised and updated edition of its popular 2002 hardcover that sold over 40,000 copies.50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans features dynamic profiles of some of today's most influential, powerful, and, above all, inspiring African-Americans. This is a coffee table soft cover that features people of color who are breaking barriers in political, educational, business, and entertainment arenas, as well as those building up their communities. This exquisite 160-page book includes more than 100 stunning photographs. Includes some of the most inspiring African-Americans of present day role models, icons, and innovators who are changing our world, are in the news, and are making a difference on both national and grass-roots levels Profiles include such well-known and respected people as Maya Angelou, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice and Tyra Banks Essence magazine sells over 1 million copies per issue and has approximately 8 million loyal monthly subscribers Essence 50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans hardcover edition currently has over 57,000 copies in print
 

Black Men: In Their Own Words
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Hardcover: 252 pages
Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (May 14, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0609603663
ISBN-13: 978-0609603666
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches

Adult/High School-More than 90 black men from a wide variety of backgrounds, professions, and age groups share their insights with readers. Nine chapters address themes of manhood, passion, the arts, family, friendship, success, choices, the Civil Rights Movement, and legacies. Each one, prefaced with a poem by Amiri Baraka, features the personal experiences and ideas of several men on the selected theme. Black-and-white photographs appear throughout. Captions next to the pictures briefly summarize the men's professional achievements, but the focus of the book is on their words of wisdom on how to live life, achieve goals, and contribute to the well-being of others. Teens will be familiar with most of the athletes and performing artists included, but they may be less familiar with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, and the University of Maryland's president, Freeman A. Hrabowski III. Authors, businessmen, visual artists, ministers, and others who have broken down barriers to progress and helped improve our society are all featured. The examples of what these men have achieved combined with the impact of the stories that they share make for powerful inspirational reading.
—Joyce Fay Fletcher, Rippon Middle School, Prince William County, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Wisdom of the Ages: Extraordinary People Ages 19-90
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by Patricia M. Hinds (Author), Susan L. Taylor (Contributor)

Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Time Inc. Home Entertainment (January 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1932273166
ISBN-13: 978-1932273168
Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches

For more than 30 years, Essence has been the voice of African-American women. Throughout these years, Essence has collected and shared the wisdom of African-Americans-famous or not-on a wide range of issues. Now, in one book, Wisdom of the Ages offers advice on celebrating life to the fullest and dealing with it's most important issues. The book is organized with profiles of people and their words of wisdom. Whether it's Halle Berry speaking about overcoming obstacles, or Samuel and LaTanya Jackson discussing their intimate relationship, this book gives the reader an in-depth look at the fascinating stories of these interesting people from ages 19 to 90. Both men and women will want this book on their coffee table or their bookshelf as an inspiring reference to a fulfilling life.

bio: excerpted, in part from, Essence Magazine's Website

 

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