Then one of the American delegates rose and said quietly, “Disarm, free your people, return to God, confess your sins, as we did, and do penance, as we did. Come with us into the presence of God.”
“The doctrines of Marx—” began one of the Russian delegates, looking about him with a starved, gray face, but the American delegate interrupted, “Have those doctrines cleared your land and restored life to your people? Read his doctrines to the weeds, and let them answer you.”
“Let our scientists examine your ground for your mysterious, secret chemicals,” said the Russian delegates, and smiled knowingly. So the Russian scientists were granted this permission, and returned to their masters in awed silence.
In mercy, the other nations offered to ship huge loads of grain and meat to Russia. They expected refusal and vilification, but, to their surprise and happiness, the delegates accepted the offers. When other nations, shortly afterwards, beamed powerful messages to the people of Russia and the satellite states, the Kremlin said nothing.
The silence behind the Iron Curtain became even more impenetrable, and now no refugees escaped from behind it to tell what was happening in Russia, and what the people were thinking. All at once, however, the Kremlin announced that no further shipments of food would be accepted from the free world. The United Nations was filled with consternation and pity.
The President suggested that representative clergy of all nations appear in the United Nations building to lead the delegates in prayer and thanksgiving. On Christmas Day the clerical delegations arrived, rejoicing. It had been expected that the Russian delegates would absent themselves, but to the amazement of all they were in their seats, smiling faintly. Some thought they smiled in derision.
The services of thanksgiving were about to begin when the Russian delegates and the delegates of their satellite states rose in a body, and silence fell over the assemblage. Were these men, as usual, about to create a disturbance by their protests? Every anxious eye fixed itself upon them, as they stood in a portentous phalanx.
“We wish the services to be delayed for a few moments,” said the leader. He lifted his hand in a signal, and remained standing among his fellows. An intense air of suspense settled on the assembly.
Then into the crowd there came the Grand Prelate of Russia, followed by his lesser clergy, and from among the welter of brilliant color and lace and white robes and reverent faces rose a Byzantine crucifix. Delegates of all nations rose with one movement, listening in astonishment to the chant of the Russian priests, a chant of thanksgiving and joy. Disbelieving, the other delegates watched as their Russian fellows approached the Grand Prelate and knelt before him for his blessing and bent their heads before the fine shower of holy water.
The Grand Prelate turned his bearded face to the clergy of other nations, smiled at them, and lifted his hands.
“The Most Holy God has granted mercy to His daughter, Russia, and has accepted her penance,” he said, in English.
Tears filled his old eyes as he continued in his strongly accented voice.
“Our people are free, and our churches are filled with our children. The government of our country implores all her sister nations to accept Russia into the brotherhood of man, into the fatherhood of God. You have prayed for us, and your prayers have been answered, and we have prayed, and our land is bright again and full of the laughter of free men.” He clasped his hands together and chanted:
“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior!”
A Biography of Taylor Caldwell
Taylor Caldwell was one of the most prolific and widely read American authors of the twentieth century. In a career that spanned five decades, she wrote forty novels, many of which were New York Times bestsellers.
Caldwell captivated readers with emotionally charged historical novels and family sagas such as Captains and the Kings, which sold 4.5 million copies and was made into a television miniseries in 1976. Her novels based on the lives of religious figures, Dear and Glorious Physician, a portrayal of the life of St. Luke, and Great Lion of God, a panoramic novel about the life and times of St. Paul, are among the bestselling religious novels of all time.
Born Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell in 1900 in Manchester, England, into a family of Scotch-Irish descent, she began attending an academically rigorous school at the age of four, studying Latin, French, history, and geography. At six, she won a national gold medal for her essay on novelist Charles Dickens. On weekends, she performed a long list of household chores and attended Sunday school and church twice a day. Caldwell often credited her Spartan childhood with making her a rugged individualist.
In 1907, Caldwell, her parents, and her younger brother immigrated to the United States, settling in Buffalo, New York, where she would live for most of her life. She started writing stories when she was eight years old and completed her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, when she was twelve, although it was not published until 1975. Marriage at the age of eighteen to William Combs and the birth of her first child, Mary Margaret—Peggy—did not deter her from pursuing an education. While working as a stenographer and a court reporter to help support her family, she took college courses at night.
Upon receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Buffalo in 1931, she divorced her husband and married Marcus Reback, her boss at the US Immigration Department office in Buffalo. Caldwell then dedicated herself to writing full time. Even as her family grew with the arrival of her second daughter, Judith, Caldwell’s unpublished manuscripts continued to pile up.
At the age of thirty-eight, she finally sold a novel, Dynasty of Death, to a major New York publisher. Convinced that a pre–World War I saga of two dynasties of munitions manufacturers would be better received if people thought it was written by a man, Maxwell Perkins, her editor at Scribner—who also discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway—advised her to use only part of her name—Taylor Caldwell—as her pen name. Dynasty of Death became a bestseller in 1938 and the saga continued with The Eagles Gather in 1940 and The Final Hour in 1944. Inevitably, a public stir ensued when people discovered Taylor Caldwell was a woman.
Over the next forty years, Caldwell often worked from midnight to early morning at her electric typewriter in her book-crammed study, producing a wide array of sagas (This Side of Innocence, Answer as a Man) and historical novels (Testimony of Two Men, Ceremony of the Innocent) that celebrated American values and passions.
She also produced novels set in the ancient world (A Pillar of Iron, Glory and the Lightning), dystopian fiction (The Devil’s Advocate, Your Sins and Mine), and spiritually themed novels (The Listener, No One Hears But Him, Dialogues with the Devil).
Apart from their across-the-board popularity with readers and their commercial success, which made Caldwell a wealthy woman, her long list of bestselling novels possessed common themes that were close to her heart: self-reliance and individualism, man’s struggle for justice, the government’s encroachment on personal freedoms, and the conflict between man’s desire for wealth and power and his need for love and family bonding.
The long hours spent at her typewriter did not keep Caldwell from enjoying life. She gave elegant parties at her grand house in Buffalo. One of her grandchildren recalls watching her hold the crowd in awe with her observations about life and politics. She embarked on annual worldwide cruises and was fond of a glass of good bourbon. Drina Fried recalls her grandmother confiding in her: “I vehemently believe that we should have as much fun as is possible in our dolorous life, if it does not injure ourselves or anyone else. The only thing is—be discreet. The world will forgive you anything but getting caught.”
Caldwell didn’t stop writing until she suffered a debilitating stroke at the age of eighty. Her last novel, Answer as a Man, was published in 1981 and hit the New York Times bestseller list before its official publication date. She died at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1985.
William Combs, Taylor Caldwell�
��s first husband and father to Peggy, aboard a naval ship, circa 1926.
A portrait of Caldwell at the start of her career in the late 1930s.
A portrait of Caldwell taken before Scribner’s publication of Melissa on June 21, 1948.
Caldwell at her desk in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1949. She spent many winter months at Whitehall, a resort hotel on the property of Henry Flagler’s former estate, which is now the Flagler Museum.
Caldwell’s second daughter, Judith Ann Reback, during time with her mother at Whitehall in the 1940s.
Caldwell receiving an award in Los Angeles, California, for A Pillar of Iron after its publication in 1965.
Caldwell with her daughters, Peggy Fried and Judith Ann Reback (Goodman), and Ted Goodman in 1969 on the MS Bergensfjord.
Caldwell at a cocktail party with her daughter, Peggy, and the hostess of a research world cruise on the SS President Wilson in 1970. (Ken Parke)
Caldwell with her granddaughter, Drina Fried, at her home in Buffalo, New York, winter 1975. Soula Angelou, her personal assistant, insisted on taking this rare family picture.
An invitation from 1975 to one of Caldwell’s many cocktail parties. She hosted at least two parties a year in Buffalo, New York, before she moved to Connecticut.
Caldwell with her fourth husband, Robert Prestie, who cared for her in the last six years of her life in Connecticut.
To read more about the life and work of Taylor Caldwell, please visit www.taylorcaldwell.com.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1955 by Taylor Caldwell
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-5040-4300-7
This edition published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10038
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TAYLOR CALDWELL
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