Of Love, Hate, and Book Reviewers: A Tale of Taylor Caldwell

Janet Reback, a/k/a Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985), was one of the most popular novelists in America. In a New York Times/Publishers Weeklylist of 40 all-time best-selling fiction authors from 1900–1999, she clocks in at number 17, ahead of Ernest Hemingway, Dean Koontz, Tom Clancy, and John Steinbeck.

Publisher’s Weekly ranked Caldwell’s booksamong its annual top ten fiction bestsellers eight times, outperforming such entries as Harper Lee’sTo Kill a Mockingbird,Allen Drury’sPreserve and Protect, and Gore Vidal’sMyra Breckinridge.

Despite her success, Caldwell’s novels received mixed reviews. Dramatically mixed. Melissa(Scribner’s, 1948) was praised by Library Journal as “absorbing to the last word,” while Kirkus Reviewsbrushed it aside as “amateurish and bombastic.” Her 1951 novel, The Balance Wheel(Scribner’s), was greeted by Saturday Reviewas “a well-written story.” The New Yorkersniffed, “The thought occurs and recurs that she simply has no talent for writing.”

Caldwell was adored by fans but roasted by reviewers. Her novel about St. Paul, Dear and Glorious Physician(Doubleday, 1959), spent 61 weeks on the New York Timesbest-seller list but theNew York Herald Tribunemaintained it had “all the dignity and restraint of a movie poster.”

This Side of Innocence(Scribner’s, 1946) sold more than one million copies as a Literary Guild Book Club selection, then the largest Guild sale ever. Kirkus Reviewscriticized the book as “crude writing.” Curiously, the same Kirkusreviewer conceded that Caldwell “has a gift of story-telling which is all too rare.”

That acknowledgement, “I don’t like the book but,”appeared in many reviews. Her 1947 novel There Was a Time(Scribner’s), earned this observation from Saturday Review:

“I have read two others of Miss Caldwell’s books … Their subject matter often seemed unimportant, often sensational and meretricious; but the characters in them lived and had vitality, and there was a certain haunting fascination about them that lent an irresistible credibility to their fates.”

In her defense, Scribner’s iconic editor, Max Perkins, who discovered Caldwell, stated: “Taylor Caldwell is a story-teller, first, last, and foremost, and once you begin reading one of her books you can’t help…