# Fictional references that became true

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 21, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656 "2009-10-21T19:33:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 82

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**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/82 "2009-10-25T04:35:14Z")

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A particularly interesting example is the story of [Enoch Soames.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Soames) In 1919 Max Beerbohm wrote a short story, set in 1897, in which a man called Enoch Soames travels through time to visit the British Library at a given hour on a given date in 1997. Teller, of Penn & Teller, liked the story so much that he arranged for a ‘real’ Enoch Soames to appear in the British Library at the scheduled time.

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