'It's life's greatest adventure'

 

“Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of the noble and the learned.” – Taylor Caldwell

 

Born in England in September of 1900, Caldwell emigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and spent many of her formative years living in poverty after her father died.  It shaped her values and she said she always wanted to have money and never again live in fear of want.

 

A writer even before leaving England (where she won a Charles Dickens Prize for young writers) she became a prolific author of popular fiction, writing under her own name and the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner, and by her married name of J. Miriam Reback. 

 

In her fiction, she often used real historical events or persons combined with her own vivid imagination, writing bestsellers like Dynasty of Death, Dear and Glorious Physician (about Saint Luke), The Earth is the Lord's (about Genghis Khan), and Captains and the Kings.   Over her long lifetime (she died at age 85), she had nearly 50 novels published and purportedly discarded more than 150 more.  To date, her books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

 

“A born skeptic” she believed firmly in education and hard work.  “I wanted to acquire an education, work extremely hard and never deviate from my goal to make it.”