Enough Light to See the Darkness:: Part II: Seeking a Divine Spark

Taylor Caldwell was a late-blooming novelist whose four-novel series, Dynasty of Death, established her as a perennial bestseller and an exposer of deep national conspiracies. However, her massive, highly anticipated tomes failed to earn literary accolades. Affected by Ayn Rand's success, Caldwell made a mid-career shift. Two novels, "The Sound of Thunder" (1957) and the St. Luke story "Dear and Glorious Physician" (1959), which she had contemplated writing since she was 12, marked a transformation from her miracle-filled, God-referencing atmosphere to a direct, Jesus-centered approach. While the former discussed brilliance, the latter elaborated on the life of a world-renowned genius. It sold five million copies, positioning her as an original among ultra-conservatives.

She inadvertently crafted a key conservative defense: "You are attacking my Christianity" if you pointed out the hypocrisy, lies, and lack of Christian attitudes in conservative behavior. She refined this behavior through her gaslighting interactions with her daughter, Peggy, leading to Peggy becoming Taylor Caldwell's inseparable buffer to society. Peggy's reward for documenting TC's behavior was lengthy stays on famous ocean vessels that - while they lasted - alleviated Peggy's ongoing depression. Intertwined in these co-created lives is their resistance to the evolving world of the '60s and '70s.