Taylor Caldwell
(1900 - 1985)
J
anet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell (September 7, 1900–August 30, 1985) was an Anglo-American novelist and prolific author of popular fiction, also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner, and by her married name of J. Miriam Reback.
She used often in her works real historical events or persons. Taylor Caldwell's best-known works include Dynasty of Death (1938), an epic story about intrigues and alliances of two Pennsylvania families involved in the manufacture of armaments, "Dear and Glorious Physician" (about St.Luke), and "Captains and Kings". Her last major novel, Answer as a Man, appeared in 1980.
Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England, into a family of Scottish background. Her family descended from the Scottish clan of MacGregor of which the Taylors are a subsidiary clan. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it was to remain unpublished until 1975). In 1919 she married William F. Combs, had "Peggy" and divorced in 1931. Between the years 1918 and 1919 she served in the United States Navy Reserve. From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York and from 1924 to 1931 a member of the Board of Special Inquiry at the Department of Justice in Buffalo.
In 1931 she graduated from the University at Buffalo. In collaboration with her second husband, Marcus Reback, she wrote several bestsellers, the first of which was Dynasty of Death. Caldwell had started to write the story in 1934. It begins from the year 1837 and focuses on the entangled relationships of two families, who control a huge munitions trust. Joseph Barbour is a servant, who becomes a successful businessman and arms manufacturer. His son Martin is not interested in money, he is an idealist and altruist. Ernest, the elder son, is an egoist and believes that money is the greatest power in the world. Ernest loves Amy Drumhill, the niece of Gregory Sessions, owner of a steel factory. However, she marries Martin, who establishes a hospital, and dies in the American Civil War. Ernest's hardness ruins Joseph, and he is cursed by his mother. Dynasty of Death attracted wide attention when it was revealed that behind the male pseudonym was a woman. The story was continued in The Eagles Gather (1940) and The Final Hour (1944).
In "The Captains and the Kings" Taylor Caldwell seems to have taken on the global power brokers. In this book we find running through the story line a description of the way that the global bankers and the owners of the largest companies (all the privately owned global banks and corporations) hijack governments all over the world by instigating wars - gaining control over the countries because of the massive debts involved with fighting wars. Mentioned is the "Council on Foreign Relations" and while a disclaimer generally claims all people portrayed to be fictional it is made crystal clear that the "Council on Foreign Relations" as well as another major organization employed by the global control group for their "manipulations" were both very real organizations. Also described was the idea that political systems everywhere and certainly in the US are almost totally under the control of that group, and that nobody even gets into the running for major political office (nobody gets enough funds to be able to succeed) unless that group believes that the person is under their control. It is explained that this is often be direct control -for instance- they made a solemn oath to be true to that organization above all others, or indirect because they have either done something on their own (illegal or scandalous) that is known and can and will be used to get them to bend to the will of that group when convenient, or they have been compromised through being "set-up" and when the time is right that group will pull those strings (conform or be destroyed in the press). It is further explained that there were a few who were not under the control of that group (very few) - (that was back in the 40s and 50s) who had some success on their own and were not corruptible and in these cases seriously dirty tricks would be used against them. There was a figure obviously symbolising JFK in the book who went along with these guys (his dad's cronies) but once in power went in his own direction anyway - which meant he had to be assassinated.
Quite a "read" that book. It was made into a mini-series which avoided all the serious points in the book and simply concentrated being a sex and drama story. Probably averted a lot of people actually reading the book and discovering what Taylor Caldwell was actually revealing.
Writing
As a writer Caldwell was praised for her intricately plotted and suspenseful stories, which depicted family tensions and the development of the U.S. from an agrarian society into the leading industrial state of the world. Caldwell's heroes are self-made men of pronounced ethnic background, such as the German immigrants in The Strong City (1942) and The Balance Wheel (1951). Her themes are ethnic, religious and personal intolerance (The Wide House, 1945), the failure of parental discipline (Let Love Come Last, 1949) and the conflict between the desire for power and money and the human values of love and sense of family, presented in such works as Melissa (1948), A Prologue to Love (1962) and Bright Flows the River (1978).
Later works
In her later works Caldwell explored the American Dream and wrote stories "from rag to riches" course of life, among them Answer as a Man (1981). Caldwell's historical novels include The Arm and the Darkness, a fictionalized account of Cardinal Richelieu; A Pillar of Iron (1965), a fictional biography of Cicero, the Roman senator and orator; and The Earth Is the Lord's (1941), a fictional biography of Genghis Khan. Religious themes were prominent in several works. Answer as a Man begins with the clamour of the bells of a little church and ends with renewed faith.
"Jason raised his eyes and smiled. God is good. He moves mysteriously, as the priests say, but he has his ways, he has his ways! He is not the adversory of man. Man is, Jason thought. God is not to be understood by man. He is just to be trusted." (from Answer as a Man).
In the story Jason Garrity pins his hopes on the building of a luxury hotel, but Caldwell deals also with politics and history ("Hell! thought Jason. What can I, as a single individual, do to prevent calamity? Nothing. Taft is the safest man. He is not an imperialist, like Roosevelt. Nor a social fanatic like Wilson. I'll vote for Taft."). Dear and Glorious Physician (1959) was about Luke the Evangelist, and Dialogues with the Devil (1967) was a study of good and evil. Caldwell depicts in it a correspondence between Lucifer and Michael, mixing in the dialogue old tales, a lost continent, and theological speculations.
—'"Childish raptures! said Lucifer, with scorn, his eyes flashing like lightning. "Are we indeed whimpering and craven children, or slaves? Can we be content with toys and little deliciousnesses? Are we not mind, as well as emotion? And is not the mind, of both angel and man, the noblest of possessions, and worth exercising. It is in our minds that we approach the closest of Him, Who is all Mind. Mind is the creator of all philosophy, all order, all beauty, all satisfaction, but emotion is the lowliest of the virtues, if it is a virtue at all. Mind has in it the capacity to know all things, or, at least, the minds of angels."' (from Dialogues with the Devil)
Writing career
During her career as a writer Caldwell's books sold over thirty million copies. She received several awards, among them the National League of American Pen Women gold medal (1948), Buffalo Evening News Award (1949), and Grand Prix Chatvain (1950). Caldwell was married four times altogether — the third time to William Everett Stancell, and the fourth and final time to William Robert Prestie, who was a follower of Subud (he died in 2002). She had two daughters, Judith and Mary (Judith died in 1979). She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion. Caldwell continued writing until 1980, when a stroke left her deaf and unable to speak. She died of pulmonary failure in Greenwich, Connecticut on September 2, 1985.
Social philosophy
“We, perhaps, have corrupted our children and our grandchildren by heedless affluence, by a lack of manliness, by giving the younger generation more money and liberty than their youth can handle, by indoctrinating them with sinister ideologies and false values, by permitting them, as young children, to indulge themselves in imprudence to superiors and defiance of duly constituted authority, by lack of prudent, swift punishment when the transgressed, by coddling and pampering them when they were children and protecting them from a very dangerous world – which always was and always will be. We gave them no moral arms, no spiritual armor.” – On Growing Up Tough, chapter On Hippies
"The nature of human beings never changes; it is immutable. The present generation of children and the present generation of young adults from the age of thirteen to eighteen is, therefore, no different from that of their great-great-grandparents. Political fads come and go; theories rise and fall; the scientific ‘truth’ of today becomes the discarded error of tomorrow. Man’s ideas change, but not his inherent nature. That remains. So, if the children are monstrous today – even criminal – it is not because their natures have become polluted, but because they have not been taught better, nor disciplined.” – On Growing Up Tough, chapter The Purple Lodge
Further reading
For further reading: In Search of Taylor Caldwell by J. Stearn (1974); Twentieth-Century Romance & Historical Writers, ed. by Lesley Henderson (1990); World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996, vol. 1).
Significant quotes
"There can be help. There's always God," said Amy. "I'm ashamed. I'd forgotten about Him.” She was quiet for a time. When she lifted her head she looked older and resolute. “Don’t blame yourself too much, Cousin Caroline,” she said. “That’s as bad as taking no blame at all. I’m not going to blame everything on Ames; I was a little fool myself. I was old enough to know that things aren’t simple.” - A Prologue to Love
"The American insanity for Loving Everybody is ruining my good temper and delivering my stomach to enormous bouts with acidity." - On Growing Up Tough, chapter Dolts and Love Cultists
"There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like myself. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, no contentment. I would rather cook a meal for a man and bring him his slippers and feel myself in the protection of his arms than have all the citations and awards and honors I have received worldwide, including the Ribbon of Legion of Honor and my property and my bank accounts. They mean nothing to me. And I am only one among the millions of sad women like myself." - "Ask Them Yourself"
Bibliography
Dynasty of Death (1938)
This Very Earth (1940)
The Eagles Gather (1940)
The Earth is the Lord's: A Tale of the Rise of Genghis Khan (1940)
Time No Longer (1941)
The Strong City (1942)
The Arm and the Darkness (1943)
The Turnbulls (1943)
The Final Hour (1944)
The Wide House (1945)
This Side of Innocence (1946)
There Was A Time (1947)
Melissa (1948)
Let Love Come Last (1949)
The Beautiful Is Vanished (1951)
The Balance Wheel (1951)
The Devil's Advocate (1952) - speculative fiction about a near-future totalitarian America
Maggie - Her Marriage (1953)
Never Victorious, Never Defeated (1954)
Your Sins and Mine (1955)
Tender Victory (1956)
The Sound of Thunder (1957)
Dear and Glorious Physician (1958) - life of Luke the Evangelist
The Listener (1960) (UK title: The Man Who Listens)
A Prologue to Love (1961)
To See the Glory (1963)
The Late Clara Beame (1963)
Grandmother and the Priests (1963)
A Pillar of Iron (1965) - life of Marcus Tullius Cicero
Wicked Angel (1965)
No One Hears But Him (1966) (sequel to The Listener)
Dialogues with the Devil (1967)
Testimony of Two Men (1968)
Great Lion of God (1970) - life of Paul of Tarsus
Growing Up Tough (1971)
On Growing Up Tough (1971)
Captains and the Kings (1972)
To Look and Pass (1973)
Glory and the Lightning (1974) - life of Aspasia, mistress of Pericles
Romance of Atlantis (1975) (with Jess Stearn)
Ceremony of the Innocent (1976)
I, Judas (1977) - life of Judas Iscariot (with Jess Stearn)
Bright Flows the River (1978)
Answer As A Man (1980)
The Child From the Sea (1994)
