Taylor Caldwell's 40+ novels profoundly influenced conservative readers and politicians of the 1940s through the 1970s. Her daughter Peggy was there for all the events but primarily spoke through her early private position as TC's abused charge. In adulthood, she became TC's companion on many-month voyages to ports of destination, taking over the role of chaperone to her mother's sexual adventures. While Peggy never understood her mother's conservative nature or her effect on TC's reading public, she did recognize and excuse TC's aberrant (and abhorrent) behavior: an insider's view of one of America's most influential conservatives.