Matthew West’s Library

There are several passing references within the series to Matthew West’s library. Because he had lived in parallel universes and in other times, he had read many books that had not yet been written in 1700 when he arrived in the story’s timeline. One of his powers was an eidetic memory that allowed him to reconstruct a book he had once read, or even that he had once touched. Thus, he filled his library with works that had been important to him in one form or another through his long life, and most of them originally had been published after he officially “died” in 1778 or in a timeline that he had altered.

In the first volume in the series, some of these books are mentioned as he ponders whether to interfere in events at the time of the Tuscarora War. There are other passing references throughout the series to books that were from Matthew West’s library. When he started the Fortress, he created a copy of his library as part of the institutional library. He also had copies of his library at each of his homes, which were many.

In the third volume of the series, we will find a descendant of Matthew West who is inspired by Anthony Hope Hawkins’ The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Henzau. This fellow renames himself Rudolph Elphberg and founds a new nation, Ruritania. That’s quite some influence Hawkins had to inspire a new nation a hundred years before he wrote his books.