Born in Ithaca, New York, Taylor received a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942.
As a counter-intelligence officer seeking informants against French and Soviet Communists and former Nazis, he recruited former Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", later saying that he had not been aware of Barbie's activities during the war at the time that he recruited him.
[3] Taylor said Barbie impressed him as "an honest man, both intellectually and personally, absolutely without fear.
[4] Taylor returned to the United States in 1947, later earning a master's degree in library science from Columbia University (1950).
[citation needed] Taylor served on the Executive Council of the American Society for Information Science (now ASIST) from 1959–61, and was elected President in 1968.