“Taylor Caldwell never falters when it comes to storytelling.” – Publishers Weekly
“…one of the world’s most prolific and best-selling authors.” – The New York Times
"The lofty peaks of best-sellerdom are traditionally difficult to scale… But there are three American novelists who have climbed to the top not once or twice but over and over again. In so doing they have established themselves as an elite among U.S. fiction writers… All three are women: Edna Ferber, Frances Parkinson Keyes and Taylor Caldwell.” -Life Magazine
Featured Novel
One of Open Road Media's
Bestselling Titles Of The Year!
A Pillar of Iron
A Novel of Ancient Rome
New York Times Bestseller: A magnificent novel of ancient Rome and the tragic life of Cicero, who tried in vain to save the republic he loved from tyranny.
In this riveting tale, the Roman Empire in its final glory is seen through the eyes of philosopher, orator, and political theorist Marcus Tullius Cicero.
From his birth in 106 BC in the hill town of Arpinum, Cicero, the educated son of a wealthy member of the equestrian order, is destined for greatness. At a young age, he discovers the legend of the Unknown God, the coming Messiah, and it propels him on a journey of spiritual conflict and self-discovery that takes the rising young lawyer from his tumultuous family life to his tenuous alliance with Julius Caesar to a fateful love affair with the Roman empress Livia and, finally, to the political role that will make him a target of powerful enemies—and secure his legacy as one the greatest influences on Western civilization.
Based on hundreds of speeches, voluminous private correspondence, and ancient texts and manuscripts, this bestselling epic brings into focus Cicero’s complicated relationships with his contemporaries, including Caesar, Mark Antony, and Crassus, and brilliantly captures the pageantry, turmoil, and intrigue of life in ancient Rome. According to legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, author “Taylor Caldwell is a storyteller first, last and foremost, and once you begin reading one of her books, you can’t help finishing it.”
Featured Articles:
Descendants' Reviews of Taylor Caldwell novels
The Descendants of Taylor Caldwell© is offering extended reviews of Caldwell's novels. Caldwell was prolific and extremely well-known (from the late 1930s through the 1980s), where she appeared often on best seller lists. Her range in time, topic and character still recommends many of those novels to modern readers. Synopses of first eight novels recently published by Open Road Media will be found in the Descendants' Reviews section of the Reviews page as they are published.