“They left the aqueduct two hours before dawn, climbing by moonlight into the hills overlooking the port - six men in single file, the engineer leading.”
Pompeii by Robert Harris
Eight weeks after his election as President - New Year’s Eve, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln telegraphed an invitation to the Ohio Republican Salmon P. Chase to visit him in Illinois.
Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War by Roger Lowenstein
“It’s pointless going to the furniture stores, all they have to offer is 1946 utility rubbish.”
Goodbye, Curate by Fred Secombe.
“It’s your unique identification number.”
Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them, by Dan Lewis. (No, the Soviets didn’t invade. In 1950, a small town in Wisconsin acted out what would happen if they did.)
“In five years, the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman.
Steel Beach, by John Varley.
“When I was seven, my parents, my fourteen-year-old brother, Farshid, and I moved from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California.”
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American, by Firoozeh Dumas.
“Two little problems with that quote, applied to this situation.”
Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin. (Note that it begins with a quote from a different novel, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.)
“January 16, 2003. London, England. Drinks and dinner in Fulham with Jane’s friends Allison and Ian.”
A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris
“In 1565, the hapless Richard Walweyn, servant of Rowland Bangham, Esq., was arrested for wearing ‘a very monsterous and outraygeous payre of hose.’”
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History, by Richard Thompson Ford.
“Bubba Shackleford got off the train in Wyoming, eager to find some cannibals to shoot.”
Straight Outta Tombstone, edited by David Boop. (This is an anthology; the above quote is the first sentence of the first story, Larry Correia’s “Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers”.)
“I made my first public appearance on the stairs up to the school nurse’s room, at St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, on September 13, 1948.”
So, Anyway…, by John Cleese
“Death was common on the Ohio prairie in 1822.”
100 Days in the Life of Rutherford Hayes, by Eric Ebinger
The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires.
— Ursula Vernon, Nettle and Bone
“Children have always been drawn to the doors.”
Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire
“The last guy on earth anyone ever expected to end up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Park Row was Denny Malone.”
The Force, by Don Winslow
“In a hole on the ground there lived a hobbit.”
Do I really need to put the title?
“Nikki and I were enjoying the concert.”
Don’t Give Up the Shop (Bob & Nikki #24) - Jerry Boyd
Yes. And quote it correctly, too. [glares in fierce Tolkien fan]
(Yes, I’m kidding. Tpyos happen.)
“On Thursday 28 January 1790, the Reverend Thomas Puddicombe brushed the dirt from his hands and returned to his vicarage in the village of Branscombe, on the South Devon coast.”
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to 1789–1830 (p. 1). Pegasus Books. Kindle Edition.
Mea culpa. I can’t type on my phone