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There Was a Time
Frank Clair, a perceptive young artist is torn between the prostitute who has unselfishly taken care of him and the wealthy and passionate woman able to satisfy his desires for fame and money
- GenresFiction
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
62 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Taylor Caldwell
152 books554 followers Also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner.
Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it remained unpublished until 1975). Her father did not approve such activity for women, and sent her to work in a bindery. She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health. (In 1947, according to TIME magazine, she discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.)
In 1918-1919, she served in the United States Navy Reserve. In 1919 she married William F. Combs. In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York. In 1924, she went to work for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo. In 1931 she graduated from SUNY Buffalo, and also was divorced from William Combs.
Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, a fellow Justice employee. She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith, in 1932. They were married for 40 years, until his death in 1971.
In 1934, she began to work on the novel Dynasty of Death, which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, This Side of Innocence was the biggest fiction seller of 1946. Her works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, though she still lived near Buffalo.
Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. During her career as a writer, she received several awards.
She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion.
Around 1970, she became interested in reincarnation. She had become friends with well-known occultist author Jess Stearn, who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. Supposedly, she agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "past-life regression" to disprove reincarnation. According to Stearn's book, The Search of a Soul - Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives - eleven in all, including one on the "lost continent" of Lemuria.
In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer, but divorced him in 1973. In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith over the estate of Judith's father Marcus; in 1979 Judith committed suicide.
Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, though she could still write. (She had been deaf since about 1965.) Her daughter Peggy accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell, and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.
She died of heart failure in Greenwich, Conn
Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it remained unpublished until 1975). Her father did not approve such activity for women, and sent her to work in a bindery. She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health. (In 1947, according to TIME magazine, she discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.)
In 1918-1919, she served in the United States Navy Reserve. In 1919 she married William F. Combs. In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York. In 1924, she went to work for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo. In 1931 she graduated from SUNY Buffalo, and also was divorced from William Combs.
Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, a fellow Justice employee. She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith, in 1932. They were married for 40 years, until his death in 1971.
In 1934, she began to work on the novel Dynasty of Death, which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, This Side of Innocence was the biggest fiction seller of 1946. Her works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, though she still lived near Buffalo.
Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. During her career as a writer, she received several awards.
She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion.
Around 1970, she became interested in reincarnation. She had become friends with well-known occultist author Jess Stearn, who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. Supposedly, she agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "past-life regression" to disprove reincarnation. According to Stearn's book, The Search of a Soul - Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives - eleven in all, including one on the "lost continent" of Lemuria.
In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer, but divorced him in 1973. In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith over the estate of Judith's father Marcus; in 1979 Judith committed suicide.
Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, though she could still write. (She had been deaf since about 1965.) Her daughter Peggy accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell, and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.
She died of heart failure in Greenwich, Conn
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 3, 2012
Okay, another of Caldwell's 1940s novels that I've had on hand for years but never gotten around to reading. Having been in another 'Caldwell Phase' lately with THE BALANCE WHEEL and MELISSA, here I go again.
Starts out very slowly (even more slowly than MELISSA,if that's possible), as is typical of Caldwell novels from this period - the story starts in England in 1904, with our young main character around 3 to 4 years old. The opening chapters have a vague, almost dream-like quality to them, and remind me of John Galsworthy's short work "Awakening," the second of the two 'Interludes' in THE FORSYTE SAGA.
5/24: After 10 chapters and 67 pages (read over the course of 3 days) I still have no idea where this story is going, other than that it's now 1907 and the Claire family is just about to land in America. I think the early chapters were based on Caldwell's own memories of England, particularly Manchester (where Caldwell was born) - Like her character Frank, she, too, was about seven years old when she emigrated to the US in 1907 from England.
5/25: Apparently both author and editor (or copy-editor) were asleep at the wheel when this novel was prepared for publication: On page 77 we're told that Frank's teacher, Miss Jones, is the sole support of "herself, her mother, and a crippled brother." 24 pages later, however, the crippled brother has undergone a change of gender! "Then her crippled sister sickened, and she was obliged to care for her for several weeks. She was finally forced to place this sister in a public charitable institution, for she had no means and no way to care for her."
5/30: I'm over 300 pages in, and though it's becoming more engrossing, it's still more or less just plodding along. This is one of Caldwell's most relentlessly bitter books. Another indication that some aspects of THERE WAS A TIME mirror Caldwell’s own life is that Frank is suddenly struck with a strong desire (that seems to come out of absolutely nowhere, it seems) to write about St. Luke, Caldwell’s favorite saint since childhood and ultimately the subject of DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN, probably her most well-regarded novel - she writes in her Foreward to that novel that it underwent several drafts before the version published in 1959, beginning with a first when she was 12 years old.
And as always, several of the characters display the typically Caldwellian ability to quote various works of literature or social observations by famous people at great length, seemingly without stopping to draw breath.
6/02: This was one of Caldwell's most relentlessly bitter books, especially in its depiction of the poor relationship between Frank and his parents. About half-way through, Caldwell moves her main character to Kentucky to seek his fortune drilling oil - things there end rather violently, and, shaken, he returns to Bison, NY for the remainder of the novel, where he achieves some moderate success writing 'trash' for magazines. He then embarks on writing a novel about "a family of 'international bankers,' men of long, sober American backgrounds, who, from the time of the War of 1812, had cunningly and sedulously plotted wars for their own profit. This was what the American people wanted. Insecure, frightened, mysteriously terrified, they wished a scapegoat for their fear. He, Frank Clair, would give it to them. He would not exhort them to cry 'mea culpa!' He would put into their mouths the hateful shout 'Lynch him!'”
I can't help but wonder if, through Frank, Caldwell was 'winking' slyly at her critics: "Sound and fury, rage and excess, anger and despair, defeated dreams, filled every page of the novel. In rereading portions of it, Frank was sometimes faintly embarrassed by the wealth of adjectives and some of the more thunderous passages. It was not dull. Critical though he was (with an eye to publishing), he admitted to himself that the writing had passion and verve, even if there was a sort of evilness about it, a kind of corruption, a deliberate twisting of phrase to gain a dubious point."
What follows strongly suggests what happened to Caldwell herself with DYNASTY OF DEATH, although unlike Frank, Caldwell's novel had been turned down by several publishers. Frank's is accepted by the first one he submits it to, Thomas Ingham's Sons, where it lands on the desk of their brilliant editor Cornell T. Hawkins - any resemblance to Charles Scribner's Sons and Maxwell E. Perkins is strictly coincidental! The novel is accepted, though with the proviso that Frank make some changes (which are never specified). It was Perkins who championed Caldwell's storytelling talent and helped her pare down her novel to a publishable length (it still came in at 797 pages of dense typeface). Caldwell was so grateful to Perkins that she dedicated her second novel, THE EAGLES GATHER, to him.
Another problem with this novel is a very unconvincing love interest that's resolved in a rather clumsy manner. Frank's deepest and closest emotional friendships are with men, and Caldwell apparently didn't realize that her character was almost certainly a latent homosexual (which certainly wouldn't have made for a popular novel at the time).
Starts out very slowly (even more slowly than MELISSA,if that's possible), as is typical of Caldwell novels from this period - the story starts in England in 1904, with our young main character around 3 to 4 years old. The opening chapters have a vague, almost dream-like quality to them, and remind me of John Galsworthy's short work "Awakening," the second of the two 'Interludes' in THE FORSYTE SAGA.
5/24: After 10 chapters and 67 pages (read over the course of 3 days) I still have no idea where this story is going, other than that it's now 1907 and the Claire family is just about to land in America. I think the early chapters were based on Caldwell's own memories of England, particularly Manchester (where Caldwell was born) - Like her character Frank, she, too, was about seven years old when she emigrated to the US in 1907 from England.
5/25: Apparently both author and editor (or copy-editor) were asleep at the wheel when this novel was prepared for publication: On page 77 we're told that Frank's teacher, Miss Jones, is the sole support of "herself, her mother, and a crippled brother." 24 pages later, however, the crippled brother has undergone a change of gender! "Then her crippled sister sickened, and she was obliged to care for her for several weeks. She was finally forced to place this sister in a public charitable institution, for she had no means and no way to care for her."
5/30: I'm over 300 pages in, and though it's becoming more engrossing, it's still more or less just plodding along. This is one of Caldwell's most relentlessly bitter books. Another indication that some aspects of THERE WAS A TIME mirror Caldwell’s own life is that Frank is suddenly struck with a strong desire (that seems to come out of absolutely nowhere, it seems) to write about St. Luke, Caldwell’s favorite saint since childhood and ultimately the subject of DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN, probably her most well-regarded novel - she writes in her Foreward to that novel that it underwent several drafts before the version published in 1959, beginning with a first when she was 12 years old.
And as always, several of the characters display the typically Caldwellian ability to quote various works of literature or social observations by famous people at great length, seemingly without stopping to draw breath.
6/02: This was one of Caldwell's most relentlessly bitter books, especially in its depiction of the poor relationship between Frank and his parents. About half-way through, Caldwell moves her main character to Kentucky to seek his fortune drilling oil - things there end rather violently, and, shaken, he returns to Bison, NY for the remainder of the novel, where he achieves some moderate success writing 'trash' for magazines. He then embarks on writing a novel about "a family of 'international bankers,' men of long, sober American backgrounds, who, from the time of the War of 1812, had cunningly and sedulously plotted wars for their own profit. This was what the American people wanted. Insecure, frightened, mysteriously terrified, they wished a scapegoat for their fear. He, Frank Clair, would give it to them. He would not exhort them to cry 'mea culpa!' He would put into their mouths the hateful shout 'Lynch him!'”
I can't help but wonder if, through Frank, Caldwell was 'winking' slyly at her critics: "Sound and fury, rage and excess, anger and despair, defeated dreams, filled every page of the novel. In rereading portions of it, Frank was sometimes faintly embarrassed by the wealth of adjectives and some of the more thunderous passages. It was not dull. Critical though he was (with an eye to publishing), he admitted to himself that the writing had passion and verve, even if there was a sort of evilness about it, a kind of corruption, a deliberate twisting of phrase to gain a dubious point."
What follows strongly suggests what happened to Caldwell herself with DYNASTY OF DEATH, although unlike Frank, Caldwell's novel had been turned down by several publishers. Frank's is accepted by the first one he submits it to, Thomas Ingham's Sons, where it lands on the desk of their brilliant editor Cornell T. Hawkins - any resemblance to Charles Scribner's Sons and Maxwell E. Perkins is strictly coincidental! The novel is accepted, though with the proviso that Frank make some changes (which are never specified). It was Perkins who championed Caldwell's storytelling talent and helped her pare down her novel to a publishable length (it still came in at 797 pages of dense typeface). Caldwell was so grateful to Perkins that she dedicated her second novel, THE EAGLES GATHER, to him.
Another problem with this novel is a very unconvincing love interest that's resolved in a rather clumsy manner. Frank's deepest and closest emotional friendships are with men, and Caldwell apparently didn't realize that her character was almost certainly a latent homosexual (which certainly wouldn't have made for a popular novel at the time).
May 24, 2021
Un viaje al interior de la mente y los más grandes temores de un afamado escritor en ciernes.
Una novela que se construye lentamente a sí misma a cada palabra, a cada capítulo, hasta llegar a un clímax inimaginable.
La historia de Francis Clair es compleja, llena de momentos reflexivos acerca de las complicaciones de ser y de aventurarse a crecer. Pero el destino es una maquinaria compleja, inexorablemente precisa y en ocasiones cruel. De una u otra manera llegaremos a nuestra hora final, de nosotros depende tomar el camino largo y tortuoso de la negación, o el trecho que se nada de espaldas enfilados corriente abajo de un río. Taylor Caldwell construye este relato apoyada en la primera opción. La negación de Clair llega a tal grado que es difícil convivir consigo mismo con un manantial de sentimientos que solo pueden brotar al plasmarse en una hoja de papel. Y cuando ese momento llega la epifanía más gloriosa se desata dentro de una historia que a veces parecía divagar sin sentido. Algunos pasajes de este relato son verdaderas joyas, pero para tener el derecho a admirarlas es necesario adentrarse por los arduos y tempestuosos caminos del mundo Caldwelliano.
Una novela que se construye lentamente a sí misma a cada palabra, a cada capítulo, hasta llegar a un clímax inimaginable.
La historia de Francis Clair es compleja, llena de momentos reflexivos acerca de las complicaciones de ser y de aventurarse a crecer. Pero el destino es una maquinaria compleja, inexorablemente precisa y en ocasiones cruel. De una u otra manera llegaremos a nuestra hora final, de nosotros depende tomar el camino largo y tortuoso de la negación, o el trecho que se nada de espaldas enfilados corriente abajo de un río. Taylor Caldwell construye este relato apoyada en la primera opción. La negación de Clair llega a tal grado que es difícil convivir consigo mismo con un manantial de sentimientos que solo pueden brotar al plasmarse en una hoja de papel. Y cuando ese momento llega la epifanía más gloriosa se desata dentro de una historia que a veces parecía divagar sin sentido. Algunos pasajes de este relato son verdaderas joyas, pero para tener el derecho a admirarlas es necesario adentrarse por los arduos y tempestuosos caminos del mundo Caldwelliano.
September 26, 2025
First of all, the synopsis on this site is very misleading. Prostitute who took care of him? Sorry, I've just finished this novel and have no memory of such a character, and his pining for the girl he believes is wealthy is, in my opinion, not a central focus.
It's an endless coming-of-age-and-finding-one's-purpose story, complicated by the fact that our protagonist is in his late thirties before he finally accomplishes this. Sometimes preachy, often blatantly pessimistic, and truly infuriating in the relentless descriptions of every sight, sound, smell, and fleeting emotion, there are also passages that made me pause, reread, and even highlight (something I've never done before) to appreciate the beauty and piercing honesty of the prose.
Still, I can't say the many hours invested here were a worthwhile use of my time. 700+ pages is a LOT of Frank Clair's unchecked angst and self-pity. Unless you're interested in obscure early works of popular 20th century authors, and have plenty of time you don't mind risking, maybe give this one a pass.
It's an endless coming-of-age-and-finding-one's-purpose story, complicated by the fact that our protagonist is in his late thirties before he finally accomplishes this. Sometimes preachy, often blatantly pessimistic, and truly infuriating in the relentless descriptions of every sight, sound, smell, and fleeting emotion, there are also passages that made me pause, reread, and even highlight (something I've never done before) to appreciate the beauty and piercing honesty of the prose.
Still, I can't say the many hours invested here were a worthwhile use of my time. 700+ pages is a LOT of Frank Clair's unchecked angst and self-pity. Unless you're interested in obscure early works of popular 20th century authors, and have plenty of time you don't mind risking, maybe give this one a pass.
September 5, 2017
Quite a character study. Caldwell never fails to give me pause. An example: "Not the fear of God, but the love of God. Not the lust for the things of fear: money, position, power, but the lust for the things of the spirit. When the child looks at the sky he dreams, but he does not dream of wealth and security and mastery over others. He dreams of mysteries, and remembers. But when he has been taught fear by those who have forgotten, he stoops like an ape and picks up a stone."
December 25, 2020
The protagonist in this book was...would be...a writer. Frank's idea for his premier book sounds much like The Captains and the Kings. This book is not close to the book that The Captains is. I found it much too long winded. A good editor could easily have removed 2/3s of he book, making it an interesting read. I did plod to the end, not sure it was worth it. Written in 1947 I guess the author had some development of her own to do.
May 31, 2022
Novela sobre la lucha eterna entre el bien y el mal. Taylor Cadwell fue de mis primeros autores de lectura, cuando yo era adolescente y acabé por leer como 10 de sus libros. Este en particular me gustó, pero no fue de mis preferidos
March 20, 2023
Deeply touching
Ms. Caldwell never disappoints! This tale will have you travel through a very tragic time of history and the affects it has on a family but more importantly one young man that is lost and suffers greatly until he finds the one thing that saves him!
Ms. Caldwell never disappoints! This tale will have you travel through a very tragic time of history and the affects it has on a family but more importantly one young man that is lost and suffers greatly until he finds the one thing that saves him!
July 9, 2019
There was a time
This was a very depressing novel I've never read one that I did not like and had to make myself finish it was too depressing and only in the end was it rewarding
This was a very depressing novel I've never read one that I did not like and had to make myself finish it was too depressing and only in the end was it rewarding
October 11, 2011
For me it was a really slow book. I'm normally a fast reader but this one took me forever to finish! I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a bad book.. just slow. I'm glad I read it, but I don't feel any different after finishing it.
September 21, 2009
It's been a slow start and a little dry...we shall see
May 23, 2010
This was a good book, I suppose. I found it hard to read--way too wordy, dull at times.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews