The long dynastic saga was not a new undertaking for Caldwell. Her very first novel Dynasty of Death (1938) about the Bouchard clan who controls a huge munitions trust, had been so long in its original form that her editor, Maxwell Perkins, took the last part from her manuscript and outlined for her its two sequels, The Eagles Gather (1940) and Time No Longer (1941). Joseph Armagh in his permanent obsession with money and power strongly resembles the Bouchards of the trilogy as well as Franz Stoessel, the ruthless steel tycoon of Strong City (1942). Let Love Come Last (1949), also a rags-toriches saga, has the added angle of unappreciative and exploitive children who outwardly conspire against their patriarch.