Taylor Caldwell Books In Order

Publication Order of Barbours/Bouchards Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Taylor Caldwell was an Anglo-American author, born in Manchester, England before immigrating to the United States with her parents when she was still a child. Their move to the United was hard for the young family as the father died a few years into the move, leaving the family without a provider. The circumstances of her family never stopped the young Taylor from making something of herself. By the time she was in the second grade, she was writing short stories, and by age twelve, she had written :The Romance of Atlantis” her first novel, which was published in 1975. Her father, who was still alive at the time never approved of women trying to make a career in writing and sent her to be a binder’s assistant. When World War I broke out, she left her job to become a United States Navy Reservist. Caldwell would marry William F. Combs in 1919, with whom she had a daughter Mary in 1920. She would later work for the New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo as a court reporter, before becoming a member of the immigration tribunal in the Buffalo division of the United States Department of Justice. In 1931, she was divorced from her first husband William Combs and got her degree from SUNY Buffalo. Within a year, she would marry Marcus Reback, a fellow department of justice employee with whom she had Judith their only child.

Besides her writing, Taylor Caldwell was a conservative that spoke her mind, and was at one time believed to be sympathetic to the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby, and even wrote a column for “American Opinion”, the John Birch Society’s monthly journal. In fact, many of her articles from her “American Opinion” days were toned down and included in her 1971 “On Growing Up Tough Memoirs.” She became interested in reincarnation philosophies around the year 1970 after becoming friends with Jess Stearn, a well-known occultist author who asserted that the reason she could write about historical happenings so vividly, was because she was drawing from a subconscious recollection of her previous lives. After the death of Reback, who had been her husband for over forty years, she married a retired real estate developer William Everett Stancell in 1972, only to get divorced barely a year later. She was not done with marriage yet and in 1978 married an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. She would suffer a stroke in 1979 that made her mute though she never stopped writing until her demise from heart failure in 1985 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

As a writer, Taylor Caldwell was best known for writing suspenseful and intricately plotted novels that focused on the themes of family tension, and were set in the period during which the United States transitioned from an agricultural society into a global industrial powerhouse. “Dynasty of Death” her debut novel first published in 1938 is one of her most popular novels and a bestseller. Publishing under the pseudonym Taylor Caldwell, it was always assumed that the author was a man, and as such, there was quite a stir when found out that she was a a woman. Her heroes tend to be self-made men that come from continental Europe and make it big in the United States. As for her themes, they are mostly about the failure of parental discipline, personal, religious, and ethnic intolerance, the conflict between sense of family and the values of love common to all humanity, as juxtaposed against the desire for money and power.

While the bulk of her works were focused on the religious aspects of life, the latter works were mostly about the rags to riches stories of the American dream. Some of these novels such as “Captains and Kings” was a popular bestseller that went on to be made into a TV miniseries. She would continue to write prolifically until her death, with TIME magazine reporting that she burned and discarded almost 140 unpublished manuscripts during her lifetime. Over her long career spanning more than four decades, she authored more than 42 novels, most of which became bestsellers selling over 30 million copies combined. With most of her books selling big right up to the time of her death, she was a very wealthy woman that could afford to travel and live anywhere in the world. Despite her relative wealth, she preferred to live in Buffalo, New York, where she had spent most of her life.

“Dynasty of Death” Taylor Caldwell’s debut novel tells the story of two families who set up a munitions factory that came to be a powerful global conglomerate. The narrative stretches right from the early 19th century right to the beginning of the First World War. The multigenerational saga tells of the life and times of the Barbour and Bouchard families of the fictional town of Windsor, Pennsylvania. Joseph Barbour used to work as a servant before becoming a successful munitions manufacturer and businessman. Martin Barbour his son is a true altruist and idealist with no interest in money. Ernest Barbour the eldest believes that money is the answer to everything in life. What follows is a battle between the brothers on how to run the business empire that lasts for their entire lifetimes, taking a toll on not only the brothers but also their extended families.

“The Eagles Gather” the sequel to “Dynasty of Death” is another incredible novel by Taylor Caldwell. The saga of the two families continues, though it now focuses on the misfortunes and fortunes of the licentious heirs of the Barbour and Bouchard estate rather than the intricacies of the arms manufacturing industry. The members of the two families are two generations removed from those of the first novel and through marriage, the conflict over wealth, power show and personalities seems to have dissipated. Nonetheless, even as it is a brand new generation, the story of brother against brother rears its ugly head again. Christopher the black sheep of the family and a cunning schemer has a habit of using his family for his own ends. He is now out to get his elder brother who is the new head of the family. But the real story is the one between two new characters who relive the unscrupulous versus the idealist character themes from the first novel.

One Response to “Taylor Caldwell”

1. Arlene Spinkaa: 2 years ago

   In the mid 1960’s I read my first Taylor Cafwell book and loved it. The subject was the Lackawanna County, PA coal mining and lumber industry and inhumane treatment of the workers VS the owners of the mines, with children in the mines. Then I moved from South Jersey to Scranton area in 1970 as a young widow with 2 young children, and saw first hand what Taylor was writing about. Can you please tell me the name of that book, as I forgot it. She taught me a lot about life. I am sure that the Belin family and Chamberlin family and DuPont family and maybe the Scranton family served as models for some of her books. I am now 84 and wish I could have read every book she wrote. Dear and Glorious Physician was also a great book. What a very smart and sympathetic woman she was.

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