"Tyndale House has come a long way since it first started in my parents’ old house back in 1962. Almost everything about the company has changed since those very early days, but the most important aspects of the business have not changed. Our purpose and goals are still what they have always been. As I look to the future, I am committed to retaining that purpose and these goals." - President’s Message

Tyndale House Publishers was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor. Concerned that his ten children were having a hard time understanding the family’s devotional reading of the old English in the King James Version of the Bible, Taylor paraphrased the The Living Bible so they could hear and understand the scriptures in everyday English.

In 1954, as he rode the commuter train to his job in Chicago, Taylor started paraphrasing the New Testament into modern English. After seven years of writing and rewriting, he submitted the manuscript to several publishing houses, but it was rejected by all of them. Convinced that there was value in the work for more than just their children, Taylor and his wife Margaret, decided to use their limited savings to publish Living Letters.

In 1962, Taylor exhibited his self-published Living Letters at the Christian Booksellers Association convention. The following spring Billy Graham saw a copy of Living Letters and asked if he could print a special edition and offer it on the telecasts of his crusades. Half a million copies were given away through the Graham crusades. Ken Taylor’s dream had become a reality and more – a publishing entity had been born. Tyndale House Publishers grew from a modest home into a major publishing entity that reaches every continent in the world.

"I had always been fascinated by the story of the 16th-century Englishmen William Tyndale. His lifetime goal was to translate the Bible into English, even though there was a death penalty for anyone who dared to do this. William Tyndale’s dream was accomplished, but in 1536 King Henry VII arranged for Tyndale to be burnt at the stake for giving the English Bible to England. I too had a dream of giving America a Bible that was easy to understand." -Dr. Kenneth N. Taylor