The Listener: A Novel

About Taylor Caldwell

Taylor Caldwell (19001985) was one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the twentieth century. Born Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell in Manchester England she moved with her family to Buffalo New York in 1907. She started writing stories when she was eight years old and completed her first novel when she was twelve. Married at age eighteen Caldwell worked as a stenographer and court reporter to help support her family and took college courses at night earning a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Buffalo in 1931. She adopted the pen name Taylor Caldwell because legendary editor Maxwell Perkins thought her debut novel Dynasty of Death (1938) would be better received if readers assumed it were written by a man. In a career that spanned five decades Caldwell published forty novels many of which were New York Times bestsellers. Her best-known works include the historical sagas The Sound of Thunder (1957) Testimony of Two Men (1968) Captains and the Kings (1972) and Ceremony of the Innocent (1976) and the spiritually themed novels The Listener (1960) and No One Hears But Him (1966). Dear and Glorious Physician (1958) a portrayal of the life of St. Luke and Great Lion of God (1970) about the life of St. Paul are among the bestselling religious novels of all time. Caldwells last novel Answer as a Man (1981) hit the New York Times bestseller list before its official publication date. She died at her home in Greenwich Connecticut in 1985.