On 05/20/21 I wrote a newsletter under the title
"TC and Contemporary Thought."
From it I received considerable response. The gist of the newsletter was based on my listing four "conservative" themes that get a great deal of voicing in TC's novels.
1. A Republic, not a Democracy, is what a strong vibrant society needs: This ran throughout both "A Pillar of Iron" on Cicero and "Glory and the Lightning" on Pericles and Aspasia, always spoken in the voice of Solon.
2. The most evil of people would find their army of supporters among the rabble: Such as Cataline had the gifts of a demagogue, who easily divined what would attract the riff-raff– which TC presented as akin to the trolls in "Lord of the Rings." It was, though, the destruction of the Republic (of Rome) to which TC attended in "Pillar of Iron."
3. There is no such thing as lasting progress: Mankind will forever cling to its fundamental nature. As much as TC pulls in the presence of Jesus – in her Mediterranean novels and in her "modern" engagements of everyday people with Him – she insists despite His progressive message, that only fools believe in progress.
4. Coddling children – not recognizing their fundamental nature – will destroy our Society: The John Birch Society – by placing her as the only female on their six-member board – touted her "On Growing Up Tough" (1971) as their paean to her core message. Variants of it appear in the novels of her last 15 working years, with "Wicked Angel" an example.
I then put comments from very recent editorials – by Ross Douthat (a conservative) on one hand, and on the other Ezra Klein (a liberal) and Nichole Hemmer (a moderate conservative) – that supported that these are, indeed, contemporary themes, though I was more specific on Jesus (and TC's approach to him) than were any of these. It was specific reference to the John Birch Society that brought out the responses.
Maybe looking at the newsletter again – here is a link – will be helpful. Below I will give excerpts from three newsletter readers on what the response was about. Before that I mention why I was interested myself in the Open Road promotions today because I saw these two volumes as straddling a significant incident in TC's life – a home invasion – in the late '50s that within a few years led to a great change in her lifestyle and likely in her view of America. These, each for $2.99:
• Great Lion of God (1970) Born a veritable great lion of God to a devout Jewish family, Saul of Tarsus is raised by his parents to embrace their love of humanity. Dogged by what he perceives as a lack of true faith, he embarks on a journey to save his people from sacrilege. But on the road to Damascus a vision of the resurrected Jesus changes the course of his life. Converting to Christianity, the newly christened Paul transforms from persecutor of blasphemers into apostle to the gentiles, becoming one of the supreme influences on the Catholic Church and the Western world.
Now to the newsletter responses to which I, in turn responded. I will only use initials of the responders. The initial response:
DN: "Not sure where you got the fact that was on the John Birch Society “6 member board.” They have a “Council” as the governing body, about 20-25 men only until the founder, Robert Welch, died and his widow took a seat. It was not until the 90s when women served on the Council.
What I sent DN were these two links, which have appeared in newsletters previously going back to late 2019.
https://jbs.org/category/about-us/ This lists 7 (not 6 as I had said) of the famous dignitaries of the JBS including John Welch and Fred Koch. TC the only female among them. This is certainly not a list of 25-30 people alluded to by DN. I would certainly have the right to believe this corroborated my statement in fact. Maybe, even more psychologically.
https://jbs.org/about-us/taylor-caldwell/ This is a long abstract on TC. She clearly stood out as the intellectual voice among this group, with its fulsome praise of On Growing up Tough.
Another response came from PNS who pointed out an internet review of Great Lion of God that included expressions about the depth of TC's conservatism.
"Caldwell was an outspoken conservative and for a time associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. "The American people, no matter their political party, are basically conservative and love their country," she said in her memoir, On Growing up Tough (1971). "The Liberal knows this better than anyone else. So he fills his press and al the other means of communication with Liberal lies and treacheries so that the average conservative American begins uneasily to wonder if there is something wrong with him . . . "
Alarmed by "communist-controlled penetration and subversion" of American government and institutions, she joined in 1961 a group of conservatives, including George Patton III, which used a computer to gather and analyze information on "those who would seek to bring revolutionary change to America." Though Caldwell was first and foremost a writer, not a threat to the national security, the FBI maintained a file on her.
During the 1960s and 1970s Caldwell contributed to the John Birch Society's magazine, American Opinion, which attracted aging conservatives and former McCarthyites and occasionally stirred up conspiracy theories. Caldwell argued that the income tax is unconstitutional and was created by international bankers to destroy the dissidents, and that President Kennedy knew too much when he spoke of "the Gnomes of Zurich."
Indeed, PNS goes on to say that essentially every chapter of On Growing up Tough had been an essay to a JBS vehicle previous to its publication. What I pointed out in a newsletter was that this novel was an extolment for child abuse, the kind she received from her mother, and which she dolled out to Peggy. My mother; who did her damndest to pass it on to her children; using the very words she ascribed to TC. You can read all about it in Chapter 2 of Peggy's autobiography.
I have put the abstracts (and links) below to the place where I believe a significant dividing line occurs in TC's writing: Between chapters 7 and 8. I claim it is as Marcus Reback is incapacitated. TC thought, though Peggy does not exactly corroborate, that Mr. Reback's health declined precipitously because of a home invasion. The Home invasion occurred for certain, and was in the Buffalo Courier Express the next morning. (I read it, even though I rarely read the newspaper during High School.)
Peggy concentrates on TC's saying Gerry (my father) was part of it. That was the kind of adsurdity one often got from TC.
At the minimum you see how little Peggy knew of TC's books. I believe you also see exactly where Peggy's writing is of events in real time. In Chapters 7 and 8, Judy, Peggy, Gerry, Jan Robinson, and TC and her house in Buffalo all play a role, during which time the voyages of Peggy with TC start.
The facts of Chapter 7 are strangely fabricated by Peggy, based on never having talked to any of her children. It ends with her saying I met my first wife over the telephone. Just astonishing. It talks about George Saimes as if he was an older friend -- he wasn't older. She has me saying things that are so contrary to my way of speaking, that it matches with her never having heard a word I said.
That includes Marcus Reback's part, TC's husband, who was beset upon Peggy from the beginning. In, however, my recounting these things, I have more authority as I saw Mr. Reback's behavior – quite gentlemanly – in a context that Peggy didn't. She essentially never left our house without being on my father's arm.
By contrast, Chapter 8 has corroborating letters typed out in detail, with likely actual conversations with TC. Yet, when it gets back to her children, the fantasy facts continue in Chap. 8. For example -- and I only know how much she makes up when it is about me -- she writes I was awarded the Einstein grant at Princeton for my advanced studies. There is no "Einstein Grant" and I was not at Princeton but at the Institute for Advanced Studies. She believes my daughter Jennifer was born in Princeton, but she was born the first year I was in graduate school at Michigan, three years before I went to the Institute. That's account for by Peggy never having met my children until they were adults. Then, only briefly and she paid no attention to them.
She does her best to make Marcus Reback look like a total incompetent, but I doubt it. So, what can you trust of what Peggy writes? The answer: Peggy recording what TC says and does, especially on those cruises that TC eventually took Peggy on.
Also, here for the first time there is a chance to corroborate some sort of time line. On p. 290 she refers to the appearance of TC's novels
1960 - The Listener
1961 - A Prologue to Love
1963 - Grandmother and the Priests
1963 - The Late Clara Beame
She calls it a less successful period. There is something askew with the years here. She lists the books for 1960 to 1963 (admitting she doesn't even have copies of them), but I was at Michigan for Graduate School from 1964 to 1967. It's all a mish-mash, until in this chapter and the last we are back to TC. Here, though, on p. 295 is the incident I was looking for.
The Home Invasion
On p. 302 she updates the list of published books
1965 - A Pillar of Iron
1966 - No one hears but Him
1967 - Dialogues with the Devil
Peggy says, of these three, I believe "Pillar of Iron" was most popular, more in line with what TC's readers expected. Then, she speaks of Marcus Reback at 78 or 79 deteriorating before Christmas of 1968. That was when Peggy goes on her first trip as TC's chaperone (but with Judy). Judy did go ashore, and when she did, Peggy said the only thing TC looked for where murder mysteries, though she had mostly read them all. What Judy and TC seemed to share was gossip, and I have to say that matches with what I knew about Judy from 1961.
As Mr. Reback is dying in a nursing home, TC goes to South Africa at the invitation of the Apartheid Government. She does with Jan Robinson, someone I met on several occasions. Then, many pages of a detailed review of the trip that Peggy took with TC – Reback no longer there – though Judy did attend some to him as they took a very long cruise, again Jan Robinson along. The detail here is telling.
As that year ends, with Reback still deteriorating, Peggy lists the latest two books:
1968 - Testimony of Two Men
1970 - Great Lion of God
P. 324 Marcus Reback is dead and Peggy records his whole will, the gist of which, until TC dies, Judy doesn't get much. Judy, of course, knows that TC will contrive to keep everything herself. This ends on p. 327 and January 1971, and Mr. Reback's death, at which time the battle between Judy and TC commences, ending with Judy's suicide. TC had managed to forestall the part of the Reback will that went to Judy, though the details of this actual suicide is beyond my understanding.
In this chapter there are a considerable number of letters typed verbatim by Peggy from Judy and TC. Chapter 8 seems without question the true material that started Peggy's writing in real time. There are 10 long chapters to go, covering the period to 1980 in which TC becomes incapacitated (by a second stroke), but including the five years in which TC's last husband hides her from the world.
I give final words on this period to NBS and Joyce Carol Oates.
NBS: "I think it’s humorous when some people claim….TC “knew” too much!
I remember one guy [I had pointed this out to NBS]….saying “someone” is purposely removing her books from all public libraries in America. I’ve seen some of her novels at local libraries I go to, including the Central Los Angeles Library. But the online Los Angeles library service…”Libby”….has at least 25 of her novels available for immediate reading on devices.
They aren’t being removed by nefarious liberals, as he insinuated. Many older novels from the 1920’s through the 1960’s, by countless authors, have been removed to make way for newer books, but the older novels are online now.
As always, I wonder…..did she make up conspiracy theories for her novels starting in 1938 to spice up the storyline, or did she hear wacky theories elsewhere and incorporate them into her novels?
The anti-semitism accusation has some truth. The Liberty Lobby was extremely anti-Jewish."
Joyce Carol Oates: "A memoir on Taylor Caldwell would be some story."
What is the difference between the '50s and today? In comparison to the '50s, you get to know at astonishing speed what goes on behind the scenes. Alas, you get to know a passel of unsubstantiated rumors, too. All of it too fantastic to believe in entirety. Most of it too prurient for many, though apparently not for Judy and TC: This appears at one time to have been the bond between them, as recorded by Peggy.
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