Editing Taylor Caldwell (section)

==Biography==
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2022}}
Janet Miriam Caldwell was born in [[Manchester]], England, into a family of Scottish background. Her family descended from the [[Scottish clan]] of [[Clan Gregor|MacGregor]] of which the [[Taylor (surname)|Taylors]] are a subsidiary clan. At the age of six, she won a medal for an essay on [[Charles Dickens]].<ref name=MacDowell>[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/11/books/behind-the-best-sellers-taylor-caldwell.html MacDowell, Edwin. "Behind the Best Sellers; Taylor Caldwell", ''New York Times'', January 11, 1981]</ref>

In 1907, she emigrated to the United States with her parents, Arthur Frank Caldwell and Annie ({{nee}} Marks) Caldwell, and her 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, ''[[Romance of Atlantis|The Romance of Atlantis]]'', at the age of twelve<ref name=nyt>[https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/02/arts/taylor-caldwell-prolific-author-dies.html "Taylor Caldwell, prolific author, dies"], ''New York Times'', September 2, 1985.</ref> (although it remained unpublished until 1975). She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health.

In 1918–19, she served in the [[United States Navy Reserve]]. In 1919, she married William F. Combs.<ref name=nyt/> In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary Margaret (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924, Caldwell worked as a [[court reporter]] in the [[New York (state)|New York State Department of Labor]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]. In 1924, she went to work for the [[United States Department of Justice]], as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In 1931, she graduated from the [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|University of Buffalo]]. She and Combs divorced in 1931. Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, who worked for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.<ref name=nyt/> She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith Ann, in 1932. The Rebacks were married for 40 years, until his death in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |title=(Janet) (Miriam) Taylor (Holland) Caldwell - Document - Gale In Context: Biography |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=BIC&u=tamp44898&id=GALE&#124;K2404000077&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-BIC&asid=a4cc4a10 |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=go.gale.com}}</ref>

In 1934, she began to work on the novel ''[[Dynasty of Death]]'', which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, ''This Side of Innocence'' was the biggest fiction seller of 1946, spending more than six months on the [[The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 1946|New York Times Fiction Best Seller list]], including nine weeks at #1.<ref>[[John Bear (educator)|John Bear]], ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago'', Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992. p. 23</ref>

(In 1947, according to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', her husband Marcus Reback discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.<ref name=TIME1947>{{cite news |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,933697-1,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090727213223/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,933697-1,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 27, 2009 |title=Books: What the People Want|accessdate=April 1, 2016 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=May 19, 1947}}</ref>)

Her published works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, although she still lived near Buffalo.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. In 1979, she signed a two-novel deal for $3.9 million.<ref name="PEOPLEMAG">{{Cite news |date=July 21, 1980 |title=Silenced by a Stroke, Author Taylor Caldwell Becomes the Focus of a Bitter Family Feud |url=https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077013,00.html |work=People|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090728214451/https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077013,00.html |archive-date=2009-07-28 }}</ref>

During her career as a writer, she received several awards:
* The National League of American Pen Women gold medal (1948)
* The ''[[Buffalo Evening News]]'' Award (1949)
* The ''Grand Prix Chatvain'' (1950)

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 antisemitic [[Liberty Lobby]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Federal Bureau of Investigation |author-link=Federal Bureau of Investigation |title=Taylor Caldwell's FBI file, part 2 |url= http://vault.fbi.gov/Taylor%20Caldwell/Taylor%20Caldwell%20Part%202%20of%2011/view |accessdate=2011-10-22}}</ref> Caldwell was even involved in the founding of the New York Conservative Party.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Taylor Caldwell Part 1 of 11 |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/Taylor%20Caldwell/Taylor%20Caldwell%20Part%201%20of%2011/view |access-date=2024-12-07 |website=FBI |language=en-us}}</ref>

Her memoir, ''On Growing Up Tough'', appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from ''American Opinion''. Around 1970, she became interested in [[reincarnation]]. She had become friends with well-known occultist author [[Jess Stearn]], who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. She agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "[[past life regression]]" to disprove reincarnation. However, according to Stearn's book, ''The Search for a Soul – Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives'' (1973), Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives – eleven in all, including one on the "lost" continent of Atlantis.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stearn |first=Jess |url=https://archive.org/details/searchforsoulta00stea/ |title=The Search for a Soul: Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives |publisher=Fawcett Publications |isbn=9780449234372 |publication-date=1974 |pages=51–52}}</ref>

In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer,<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 19, 1972 |title=Taylor Caldwell Married |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/19/archives/taylor-caldwell-married.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> but divorced him in 1973.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 11, 1973 |title=Author Asks Divorce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dI9PAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA9 |work=Ocala StarBanner}}</ref> In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, a Canadian 17 years her junior.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 20, 1978 |title=Taylor Caldwell Marries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rf4xAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA13 |work=Ocala StarBanner}}</ref> This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith Goodman over the estate of Judith's father. In 1979, Judith died by [[suicide]] at the age of 47.<ref name="PEOPLEMAG"/><ref>{{Cite news |date=February 2, 1981 |title=News |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/style/1981/02/03/1fc1338b-b4ce-4666-be70-3d1ae1b3fdfd/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a [[stroke]], which left her unable to speak, though she could still write (she had been deaf since about 1965). Her daughter Mary Margaret Fried accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell,<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 16, 1980 |title=Caldwell daughter seeks her mother |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rf4xAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA13 |work=The Montreal Gazette}}</ref> and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.<ref name="PEOPLEMAG"/>