Identity of Lesser Characters in Turtledove Novels

[robertp6165]

Harry Turtledove, as we all know, likes to include OTL historical characters in his novels. Some are quite obvious, like FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and others. But some of them are actually not directly identified, except maybe by first name. The reader is left to infer who it is based on clues given in the story, which is one reason I find his novels interesting, despite the many flaws in his writing style. A couple of examples I figured out...

GORDON, Straha's driver in the Colonization series, is actually G. GORDON LIDDY.

A more obvious one...ERNIE, the U.S. soldier in the Timeline 191 books who gets his balls blown off and later becomes a writer who becomes the lover of the widow of George Enos, before killing her and committing suicide, is actually ERNEST HEMINGWAY.

Did anyone pick up on others they thought interesting?

 

[Zyzzyva]

Oooh, Gordon makes sense. Cool.

 

[The Professor]

He also has a Vincent D'Onofrio that could be a veiled reference to that actor.

 

[Wanderlust]

I know there was that Lizard analog to Columbo in Homeward Bound... I get the feeling there are some more Lizards based on people, but I'm damned if I can think of any.

In fact that book seems to be swimming with them :s Nichelle Nichols and Henry Kissinger added to John Glenson and Sam Jagermeister from the past books.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Bob Hope got hated on by the vets at the front.

 

[Thande]

Fred Hipple (in WorldWar) is a pretty obvious expy for Frank Whittle. In fact I wonder why Turtledove didn't just use the real one.

 

[Thande]

In fact that book seems to be swimming with them :s Nichelle Nichols and Henry Kissinger added to John Glenson and Sam Jagermeister from the past books.

I don't understand the Nichelle Nichols one. I've heard lots of people say it and obviously the book name (Nicole Nichols) is very similar...but they seem to miss the fact that she's the young-to-middle-aged captain of a ship from the year 2031.

 

[Sean Mulligan]

The Engels Brothers are the otl Marx Brothers, and Pancho Villa is a Radical Liberal party candidate for president.

 

[Trotsky]

Bob, Carl, and Dick the Powel House Exterminators.

Three-fingered Mordechai (Carsten's mechanic and Martin's foreman) is supposed to be a baseball player IOTL IIRC.

Ben Chapman, Chief Assault Band Leader, Freedom Party Guards (the one who dropped off politicals such as Willy Knight at Pinkard's concentration camp) was a baseball player who cussed out Jackie Robinson IOTL.

Shaw, the bitter homeless guy who cursed out George Enos Sr's black fisherman friend at the beginning of American Front, is Robert Gould Shaw, the guy who led the 54th Massachusetts regiment at Fort Wagner in 1863.

 

[Thande]

In his earlier work Thessalonica, there are Beatles jokes. For instance, the main character is George and his three friends are John, Paul and...something else, but I think there's a veiled reference. Then there's a sequence where a satyr talks about his sexual appetite just using the titles of Beatles songs one after the other.

 

[Wanderlust]

I don't understand the Nichelle Nichols one. I've heard lots of people say it and obviously the book name (Nicole Nichols) is very similar...but they seem to miss the fact that she's the young-to-middle-aged captain of a ship from the year 2031.

*Shrug*

I can only guess he's so much of a fan he wanted to use her in something. But then she's not exactly cast as a sympathetic character

 

[robertp6165]

Fred Hipple (in WorldWar) is a pretty obvious expy for Frank Whittle. In fact I wonder why Turtledove didn't just use the real one.

I've often wondered the same thing. Kind of bizarre, actually.

 

[Dave Howery]

Robert E. Howard appears in one of the 'between the wars' books... he's mentioned as a writer from Cross Plains TX who writes thrilling stories about CSA airmen in the Great War....

 

[CDurham]

I think Jimmy Carter was the CSA Navy boy shot by the black rebels (and 2 escaped US POW's) while home on leave in Georgia. They only mentioned his first name though.

 

[robertp6165]

I think Jimmy Carter was the CSA Navy boy shot by the black rebels (and 2 escaped US POW's) while home on leave in Georgia. They only mentioned his first name though.

Yes, it was definitely Jimmy Carter. He even calls his mother "Miss Lillian," which is a dead giveaway.

 

[Snarf]

Clarence Darrow shows up as an attorney in the TL191 series. I'm wondering if Apicius Wood and his sons running the BBQ restaurant in Covington, KY were somehow related to Muhammad Ali (a/k/a Cassius Clay) in OTL (although Clay/Ali wouldn't have been more than a toddler during the war in either timeline).

Joe Kennedy shows up as a Navy officer (the XO on Enos Jr.'s ship) in TL191, and I think JFK shows up as well but it's been a while since I've read those. And it seems to be the consensus that Richard Nixon was one of the soldiers sweeping Flora's office for bugs...

 

[Wanderlust]

Wait, Joe Jr (with the emphasis on Jr) was the flyboy who Moss served with, wasn't he? Perhaps John was the Navy boy (Don't recall that, but then I haven't completed the series, and don't think I will).

 

[Snarf]

Wait, Joe Jr (with the emphasis on Jr) was the flyboy who Moss served with, wasn't he? Perhaps John was the Navy boy (Don't recall that, but then I haven't completed the series, and don't think I will).

You're right; Joe Jr. was in Moss' squadron and Joe Sr. was still a political operative in Boston who orchestrated the younger George Enos' early discharge from the Navy. I'm pretty sure that JFK was in there too, if only briefly.

Another note: the George Patton in TL-191 may not be the same George Patton as OTL. While his paternal ancestors were prominent in Virginia, his maternal grandfather left Tennessee for California prior to the POD for TL-191. Thus, the parents of OTL George Patton may never have met.

 

[Thande]

You're right; Joe Jr. was in Moss' squadron and Joe Sr. was still a political operative in Boston who orchestrated the younger George Enos' early discharge from the Navy. I'm pretty sure that JFK was in there too, if only briefly.

Another note: the George Patton in TL-191 may not be the same George Patton as OTL. While his paternal ancestors were prominent in Virginia, his maternal grandfather left Tennessee for California prior to the POD for TL-191. Thus, the parents of OTL George Patton may never have met.

I doubt Turtledove really thinks about these things. The only hint in TL-191 that he might have some understanding of the butterfly effect that comes to mind is that Douglas Macarthur is named Daniel instead (but is otherwise exactly the same as OTL).

 

[Wanderlust]

I doubt Turtledove really thinks about these things. The only hint in TL-191 that he might have some understanding of the butterfly effect that comes to mind is that Douglas Macarthur is named Daniel instead (but is otherwise exactly the same as OTL).

Cigarette holder instead of Pipe, Thande!

Now that's yer butterflies at work