28 findings in 11 works
Sources
Wolfe read widely and hid what he read. Over twenty-five years these two lists worked out a good deal of it, and much of what they found is old enough to be out of copyright — so the passage can sit one click from the reader who proposed it. Nothing here is ours, and none of Wolfe's own writing is reproduced.
These are readings, not facts. Every one is a person on a mailing list saying they saw something — sometimes with a long case behind it, sometimes in one line and in passing, and often with the rest of the list arguing back. Whether Wolfe intended any of it is a question the list could not settle and this page does not try to: he was not asked, or was asked and declined to say. So each entry quotes the words it rests on and links to the conversation they came from, and what to make of the connection is yours to decide.
The Bible14
Authorised (King James) Version, 1611 · read it at Wikisource
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Acts 9:36 → Dorcas The Book of the New Sun
“another seamstress, Acts 9.36-43”
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1 Corinthians 7:9 → Paul and Janey's marriage The Hero as Werewolf
“St. Paul's oft-quoted dictum from 1 Corinthians 7:9”
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Matthew 23:37 → the dead chickens The Hero as Werewolf
“derived from Matthew 23:37”
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Genesis 7:11 → the number seventeen The Book of the New Sun
“The answer, I believe, can be found in Genesis 7:11”
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Revelation 22:1 → the river running from Yesod to Briah The Urth of the New Sun
“Revelation 22:1ff”
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Acts 17:23 → the Increate, the god not named The Book of the New Sun
“the scene in Acts 17:23”
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Isaiah 14:12 → the fallen star The Urth of the New Sun
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!”
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Job 38:10 → the bars of Briah The Urth of the New Sun
“the limits beyond which one cannot go, as with the sea (Job 38:10)”
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Romans 9:33 → Baden stubbing his toe on the stone The Tree Is My Hat
“Paul's words in Romans 9.33 about Jesus being the stone on which men stu”
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John 1:3 → Silk as maker The Book of the Long Sun
“The Word, who made all things and without him nothing was made (John 1:3)”
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Luke 9:31 → the exodus from the Whorl The Book of the Long Sun
“see Luke 9:31”
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Matthew 12:41 → Horn in the belly of the fish The Book of the Short Sun
“Matthew 12:41”
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Genesis 6:4 → Nod the giant The Book of the New Sun
“the giant Nod was correctly identified with the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4”
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Ephesians 6:5 → the chems and their masters The Book of the Long Sun
“Ephesians 6: 5-9”
The Divine Comedy3
Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1867 · read it at Wikisource
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Inferno, Canto VII → the seventh floor of Greyhame Prison The Doctor of Death Island
“a parallel with Dante's Inferno, where murderers are confined to the 7th circle”
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Purgatorio, Canto V → Pia The Book of the New Sun
“in Canto V of Dante's Purgatorio Dante meets a spirit”
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Inferno, Canto III → the ruined gate The Book of the New Sun
“The gate recalls the entry to Dante's Hell”
The Eclogues1
Virgil, translated by J. W. Mackail · read it at Wikisource
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Eclogue IV → the Latin inscription The Book of the New Sun
“taken from Virgil's fourth Eclogue”
The Aeneid1
Virgil, translated by John Conington, 1866 · read it at Wikisource
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Aeneid VI → the Cumaean The Book of the New Sun
“Wolfe's character of the Cumaean corresponds to the Cumaean in Virgil's Aeneid”
The Jungle Book2
Rudyard Kipling, 1894 · read it at Wikisource
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Mowgli's Brothers → Mimmunka Tracking Song
“he talks just like Kipling's Shere Khan”
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the Red Flower → Typhon and fire The Book of the Long Sun
“the Kipling connection (the Red Flower in particular was a dead g”
The History of Herodotus1
translated by George Rawlinson, 1858 · read it at Wikisource
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Book II → the flying serpents The Book of the Long Sun
“Flying serpents in Herodotus”
The Mabinogion1
translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, 1849 · read it at Wikisource
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Math son of Mathonwy → Llew Llaw Gyffes and Pryderi The Wizard Knight
“Pryderi's name is said by the Mabinogion to mean”
Metamorphoses1
Ovid · read it at Wikisource
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Book XI → Pas against Apollo The Book of the Long Sun
“In Ovid, and in Bach's cantata”
The Golden Bough1
James George Frazer · read it at Wikisource
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The King of the Wood → North and Klamm There Are Doors
“the traditional "golden bough" scenario, where the new comer tries to kill t”
The Odyssey1
Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, 1900 · read it at Wikisource
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Book IX → Jonas The Book of the New Sun
“He was familiar with the Odyssey, which antedates the Book of Jonah”
The Thousand Nights and a Night2
translated by Richard Burton, 1885 · read it at Wikisource
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the frame tale → the title Seven American Nights
“in reference to the title "Seven American Nights"”
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the marid → Weer's fairy tales Peace
“the fairy tales that Weer reads (the suitors; the marid) are based upon something”
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