Captains and the Kings (Caldwell)

Author Bio
• Birth—September 7, 1900
• Where—Manchester, England, UK
• Raised—in the US
• Death—August 30, 1985
• Where—Greenwich, Connecticut
• Education—University of Buffalo (New York)
• Awards—1948, National League of American Pen Women
   Gold Medal; 1950, Grand Prix Chatvain


Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell 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.

In her fiction, she often used 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 Western Pennsylvania families involved in the manufacture of armaments, Dear and Glorious Physician (about St.Luke), and Captains and the 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stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it was to remain unpublished until 1975).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, and in 1934 began a collaboration with her second husband, Marcus Reback, to write several bestsellers, the first of which was Dynasty of Death. During her career as a writer Caldwell's books sold over 30 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 time to William Robert Prestie (who died in 2002). She had two daughters, Judith and Mary (Judith died in 1979).

Caldwell 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. (From Wikipedia.)