Simon Watson Taylor (anarchist)

Simon Watson Taylor (15 May 1923 – 4 November 2005) was an English literati who was born in Wallingford, in the historic county of Berkshire. He was briefly a poet and an author. But he was mostly a professional translator of French literature who also undertook editing. He initially subscribed to communism and then to surrealism. Then he also subscribed to anarchism, upon which he rejected communism. He next also subscribed to pataphysics. However, upon becoming bored with pataphysicists, he rejected pataphysics and became a hippie.

Watson Taylor initially became an actor. He then worked in a factory. Finally he worked as a cabin crew for an international airline. In the early 1940s he encountered surrealism, anarchism and pataphysics. In 1946, he had published the surrealist review Free Unions/Unions Libre, which he had edited, with the hands-on help of his anarchist friends, author Marie Louise Berneri, and illustrator and printer Philip Sansom. Between 1960 and 1971 he undertook editing work. In the 1960s and the early 1970s he was a prolific translator of French literary works. Upon becoming a hippie, Watson Taylor, emigrated to Goa, where he enjoyed a hedonistic lifestyle. From Goa he moved to an island off the Philippines, from which he eventually returned to London because of his ill-health. He died in London in 2005.