Beatles' Press Officer. Derek Wyn Taylor was born in Liverpool and raised in West Kirby, Cheshire, England. He began his career at the age of 17 as a reporter for The Hoylake and West Kirby Advertiser newspapers. He also reported for The Liverpool Echo, The Daily Post, The Sunday Express and The Daily Express from the mid-1950's to the early-1960's. It was as a staff critic for The Daily Express that Taylor first came across The Beatles in 1963. The following year, he ghostwrote Beatle manager Brian Epstein's autobiography, "A Cellarful of Noise," became Mr. Epstein's personal assistant and was made The Beatles' press spokesman. But a fight with Epstein at the end of the group's 1964 American tour put Taylor on the outs and he resigned. The following year, Taylor moved to Hollywood and started a publicity agency, representing such acts as Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Beau Brommels, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield, among others. He worked with The Doors at the beginning of their careers and he helped organize and promote the Monterey International Pop Festival (along with Lou Adler, John Philips of The Mamas and The Papas, and Alan Pariser), held the weekend of June 16-18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, CA. The festival marked the first American appearance of guitarist Jimi Hendrix and took place two weeks after the release of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," climaxing 1967's Summer of Love. The following year, Taylor resumed his position as press spokesman for The Beatles, who were now running a multi-million dollar record label called Apple Records. According to his obituary in The New York Times, "It was Mr. Taylor's task to explain everything from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's early peace campaigns and solo recordings to increasingly persistent rumors … that personal and business problems were driving the band members apart." At the time, Apple also had other acts including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Billy Preston, Badfinger, Doris Troy, the Modern Jazz Quartet and composer John Tavener, who Mr. Taylor was also responsible for representing. After he left Apple in 1970, Mr. Taylor went on to various positions in the record industry – including becoming director of special projects and later managing director of Warner Elektra Atlantic Records in London and he served as vice president of Warner Brothers Records in CA in the mid-1970's. He produced Harry Nilsson's "Little Touch of Schmillson in the Night" and worked for a time for George Harrison's Handmade Films. Mr. Taylor primarily wrote and edited books in the last 15-20 years of his life including two autobiographies. His first, "As Time Goes By," was published in 1973, and the second, "50 Years Adrift," was published in 1984. He edited George Harrison's 1980 autobiography, "I Me Mine," and inserted numerous comments to the text. Harrison did the same in "50 Years Adrift." His other books were 1981's "The Making of ‘The Raiders of The Lost Ark,'" 1987's "It Was 20 Years Ago Today" (a study of the Summer of Love), 1992's "Getting Sober … And Loving It!" that he wrote with his wife, Joan, and he edited the "Safe Food Handbook" in 1990. Mr. Taylor remained on good terms with The Beatles after his 1970 departure from Apple. A year or two prior to his death, Mr. Taylor rejoined Apple Records and commenced research and commentary on the mega-autobiographical "Beatles Anthology" series – the project netted 4 DVDs/8 tapes, 3 double CDs of session outtakes and alternate takes of songs, and a 300-plus page hardcover coffee table book. Mr. Taylor was one of only three non-Beatles to be interviewed for the project (the others were producer George Martin and road manager Neil Aspinall). Mr. Taylor died at his home near Sudbury, Suffolk, England of cancer of the esophagus