The Duration

When Richard Taylor's novel, The Duration, was returned unopened by Charles Scribner & Sons in 1964, apparently Taylor didn't have the heart to ever send it out again and it sat in its original mailing wrapper for 46 years until his stepson found it. The Duration clearly was based at least in some part on Taylor's own experience working for a newspaper during World War II. The novel follows the amorous adventures of a reporter for the San Francisco Observer, "John Edwards," dealing with life in the City by the Bay, rationing, the manpower shortage, and women whose husbands and boyfriends are away in uniform. Taylor is a talented wordsmith who uses his prodigious vocabulary and arcane knowledge of history and literature to paint a very detailed picture what life was like for civilians in wartime, especially single men in a city replete with unpaired young ladies.