I thought it would be interesting to start a topic on the literary references that BP seems to have scattered throughout the different verses. Written in water (V9) is part of the epitaph on the tombstone of the poet Keats.  The full epitaph is as follows: THIS GRAVE CONTAINS ALL THAT WAS MORTAL, OF A YOUNG ENGLISH POET, WHO ON HIS DEATH BED, IN THE BITTERNESS OF HIS HEART, AT THE MALICIOUS POWER OF HIS ENEMIES, DESIRED THESE WORDS TO BE ENGRAVEN ON HIS TOMB STONE HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER digger7

In December night (V1) Possibly refers to a poem by W.S. Merwin called December Night which he wrote in 1967 as part of book of poetry called The Lice December Night The cold slope is standing in darkness But the south of the trees is dry to the touch The heavy limbs climb into the moonlight bearing feathers I came to watch these White plants older at night The oldest Come first to the ruins And I hear magpies kept awake by the moon The water flows through its Own fingers without end Tonight once more I find a single prayer and it is not for men digger7

From Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (compare to the first 2 lines of V6): TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER If sailor tales to sailor tunes, Storm and adventure, heat and cold, If schooners, islands, and maroons, And buccaneers, and buried gold, And all the old romance, retold Exactly in the ancient way, Can please, as me they pleased of old, The wiser youngsters of today: --So be it, and fall on!  If not, If studious youth no longer crave, His ancient appetites forgot, Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave, Or Cooper of the wood and wave: So be it, also!  And may I And all my pirates share the grave Where these and their creations lie!

Here's one for verse 10 Poet's Path by Robert Service My garden hath a slender path With ivy overgrown, A secret place where once would pace A pot all alone; I see him now with fretted brow, Plunged deep in thought; And sometimes he would write maybe, And sometimes he would not. A verse a day he used to say Keeps worry from the door; Without the stink of printer's ink How life would be a bore! And so from chime of breakfast time To supper he would beat The pathway flat, a mossy mat For his poetic feet. He wrote, I'm told, of gods of old And mythologic men; Far better he had sung, maybe, Of plain folks now and then; With bitterness he would confess Too lofty was his aim. . . . And then with woe I saw him throw His poems to the flame. He went away one bitter day When death was in the sky; No further word I ever heard Beyond his last goodbye. Did battle grim take toll of him In heaven-rocking wrath? Oh did he write in starry flight His name in flame on hell-brewed night? ... Well, there's my poet's path. --- Robert Service Shannon

From Herman Melville's Pierre, or, The Ambiguities (compare to V1): " What we take to be our strongest tower of delight , only stands at the caprice of the minutest event--the falling of a leaf, the hearing of a voice, or the receipt of one little bit of paper scratched over with a few small characters by a sharpened feather."

From the first two stanzas of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (compare to line 6 and the last few lines of V3): Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm."

From the inscription on the Wright Brothers National Memorial, very near Roanoke Island (compare to the last few lines of V11): "In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conceived by genius achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith ."

As mentioned in verse 2... From The Letters of William Blake "Cowper's Letters ought to be printed in letters of gold and ornamented with jewels of Heaven, Havillah, Eden, and all the countries where jewels abound . " Shannon

Last line of v9 "Years pass, rain falls" ...compare to Virginia Wolf's To the Lighthouse "The wind blows, the rain falls , and somehow, in the progress of the night, so too do the years pass by." Shannon

From Rockland's translation of Sarmiento's Travles in the United States in 1847 (p. 141): Here is the sovereign people who build palaces to shelter their heads for a night! Here is the religion which is dedicated to man as man, and here the marvels of art are lavished on teh glorification of the masses! Nero had his Domus Aurea, but the Roman plebeians had only the catacombs to shelter themselves!

Here is p. 110 of Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation 1776-1914 , edited by Marc Pachter and Frances Wein (1976).

Here is p. 164 of Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation 1776-1914 , edited by Marc Pachter and Frances Wein (1976).

My friend Siskel finished the Herculean task of reading Abroad in America cover to cover.  He was hoping to find some other reference to one of the verses.  However, he did not.  So, we are left with 2 extremely obscure references which appear to match parts of 2 Verses from The Secret.  I think we can only conclude that Byron Preiss must have had this book at hand when he was doing the verses, and found these obscure references to New Orleans and Charleston.  It is amazing that these references were ever found, which brings up an interesting question:  What would be the purpose of putting in these references which no one could figure out? I see no significance to putting in the New Orleans verse a description of a hotel that isn't there, made by a visitor just passing through.  Likewise, Blyden is not a siginificant character in Charleston.

That occurred to me as well...and it then occurred to me that perhaps he DIDN'T have this book at hand when he wrote the clues. Perhaps the references were written in another book--one that CITED this book. It seems a lot more likely that there was a scholarly reference somewhere he used, and that these two connections were part of it. They are very obscure--not a mainstream work, not even a book that would be easy to find. But some other book--a travel book of some kind--might have quoted the Abroad in America passages, or referred to them. It is easy to forget that Preiss did all this before computers were a fixture on everyone's desk at home, and before Google, before he would have had access to a world-wide web of information except that which was available at the public library. I remember doing the "Where Are You?" travel contest in Conde-Nast Traveler magazine for years and years even as late as the early 90's--and having to spend hours at the library's reference book section to find their far less-obscure references. The tools we now use will ignore a lot of that older information in favor of weaker, more ubiquitous tools like Wikipedia and Google Books. I think it's fairly credible that an old book on Charleston, or one on New Orleans, or an old travel guide, or even an old State Department factsheet on either place might cite a book like Abroad in America; when following a 'trail' of clues to a source or to the end, and without comparitive source material, it might also be easy to overestimate the importance of the source. Or as you say, it might have been a book he owned, or found while tracing other clues. We'll never know now. The best argument for the book at all was the exactness of the quotes.  With the New Orleans quote, it seems like it was included in the verse only to be a sort of 3rd level confirmer--one that would clinch a hunch about general (or like-named) location, rather than pinpointing it. With the Blyden reference, it is FAR more oblique, and a lot less likely to be the reason for the location of Charleston--in fact, I would be willing to chalk that one up to massive and unexplainable coincidence rather than clue, if they had not actually been from the same book! Yet, the names Edwin/Edwina seem just too important to the verse to make them anything other than confirming clues for something. So perhaps we ought to search for OTHER Charleston natives that have Edwin and Edwina as namesakes?

Sorry to reply to my own post, but this just jumped up and bit me...(LOL).... hxxp://www.usca.edu/aasc/harleston.htm Note two things: FIRST, the man's name is EDWIN HARLESTON. Not only did HARLESTON live in CHARLESTON , (how weird is that name?) but he is African-American, and was a noted painter. This would mean he has ties to Charleston in cultural circles. He is extremely important to Charleston for several reasons, most notably his work with W.E.B Dubois and the fledgling NAACP.  He also owned a funeral home in Charleston for many decades. Second, if you read through the text, you'll see (a few paragraphs down) that Mr. Harleston and his wife had no children, so they raised their niece as their own child. They called her Gussie, but her NAME was EDWINA and she was named AFTER EDWIN.  And, he painted her. Harleston's paintings are held in several Charleston museums. Maybe THIS is our connection, not Blyden. There are lot more threads that connect Harleston to Charleston (besides this odd name thing) and they are still there. So maybe the verse sentence should be punctuated thusly: Edwin--and Edwina named after him instead of "Edwin and Edwina named after him ." ??

Egbert wrote:: My friend Siskel finished the Herculean task of reading Abroad in America cover to cover. Egbert wrote:: It is amazing that these references were ever found, which brings up an interesting question:  What would be the purpose of putting in these references which no one could figure out? Was it a good book?  Did he enjoy it? I think the purpose was to make the hunt hard.  I don't think it is an accident that this hunt has last so long.  I think BP purposely wanted to make it hard.  This is not a complaint or a criticism just an observation.  And I think he tells us that it is going to be hard in the choice words for the title of the book.  I looked up the word SECRET in a thesaurus and then looked up those words in a dictionary and here are a few of the results(there were surprisingly many synonyms for secret, these are just a few) abstruse : not easy to understand arcane : requiring secret knowledge to be understood camouflage : the exploitation of natural surroundings or artificial aids to conceal or disguise something classified : closely concealed or secret close : strictly guarded; restricted as to public admission or membership; hidden or secluded conceal : to keep from discovery cryptic : esoteric or obscure in meaning occult : beyond ordinary human understanding All of these words convey a certain sense of difficulty in the doing of something.  Obviously with the 25 years of hindsight that we have we can see that this hunt is difficult but my point is that I don't think that the difficulty is an accident. digger7

I think it can't be forgotten that the man was a publisher.  Words and books were his life.  Sometimes, what seems obvious to one is impossible to another... wilhouse

Recently found this literary reference...to verse 8 maybe? Quote from "John Splendid" by Neil Munro..in 1898 "The forests gleamed in a golden fire, that only cooled to darkness when the firs, my proud tall friends, held up their tasselled heads in unquenching green." Was Byron Priess a reader of Neil Munro?  Is the "proud tall" tree actually referring to a fir tree? I may have to take a look at the Lincoln Memorial Drive...even if it is in the the sub-freezing...snow-covered month of December.

thought i'd add this one since i had it in my notes from a post here: verse 8 (Mitchell ) David Hume: philosopher,historian, economist "A Treatise of Human Nature"---a distance in time, and a distance of space" i read somewhere about his name being changed to "home" because of the pronounciation, but that would take us to a different verse on a side note, "Desmond" David Hume is a character in the series "Lost" (like our treasure ) and John Locke (another character in the series) is the name of another philosopher

ck found this quote: verse 6 "To lift the bar that binds Achilles' gates!" - Homer's Iliad "and massive as the iron bar That binds a castle-gateway" "the crystal bar that binds the gates of paradise"

I'M SORRY!!! Jambone found those links!! (i don't know how to edit my posts! sorry!)

slappybuns wrote:: on a side note, "Desmond" David Hume is a character in the series "Lost" (like our treasure ) and John Locke (another character in the series) is the name of another philosopher OMG I LOVE lost lol

insatiable i've been renting them from blockbuster, last one i've seen so far, they are all bound and gagged at the pier....... i keep thinking hurley's gonna make the pier break because of his weight, is that what happens? no don't tell me, lol i just started reading about "The Secret" , and then i started renting "Lost".  it was just weird that 2 of the characters were ones i'd researched for this hunt. i think someone here must be jj abrams (the writer for Lost) , lol

on page 32 of the book: The Fairies... "... Keep their ancient places;.................yada yada yada this came from a poem by Francies Thompson called "The Kingdom of God" except he (BP) used "The Fairies" instead of "The Angels" 4th verse in the poem "The Kingdom of God": hxxp://theotherpages.org/poems/thomps01.html i think also, on page 23 when BP wrote, "There are certainly enough "Indian Myths" to establish the historical veracity of the immigration and cohabitation: stories and poems about "Bright Visitors From a Far Place" abound." , that he was referencing the book, "Abroad in America: Visitors to a New Nation".

that's a nice find slappy.

thanks

finding more: p. 14 "not of the race of Adam,'.......... hxxp://books.google.com/books?id=Zd-DWQ ... &ct=result middle column right under the picture oops, just noticed the footnotes (*'s ) to indicate the authors, but didn't see one on the francis thompson poem

wanted to add Giant Squid's find about "jewels abound" p. 163, paragraph 1 hxxp://books.google.com/books?id=CdFWti ... #PPA162,M1

skimming through the book, i found some play on words that BP used: p. 158, 1st paragraph under Range: "Thus, they glimmer and tower from Manhattan's skyscrapers, all in a (van der) Rohe, to downtown Houston, the best little Bauhaus in Texas." all in a row..................all in a Rohe van der Rohe: hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mie ... can_Period p. 166,  2nd column, bottom of the page: "The teddibly British Union Jack of Vancouver, B.C., is singing in the reign." singing in the rain......

Just thought I would bring this up again.  Maybe all(most) of these verses have a book reference that is supposed to give us a clue. As for the Abroad in America quote, I was always sort of put off by the obscurity of the book so I guess I never really read those posts completely until just now.  Not only is it an EXACT quote but he even reproduces the exclamation mark.  And BP was pretty spass with his punctuation.  I'm convinced about this one. Not sure if anyone had noticed the Sherlock Holmes reference in Verse 5 before but I thought it was pretty interesting.  Oops, having googled sherlock holmes' address it seems that it was 221(not 2) Baker street......oh well, another theory goes up in smoke..............lol.  Interestingly there is 222 Baker street at the extreme end of the panhandle of GGP which leads directly in Buena Vista Park.........probably nothing but interesting nevertheless. I don't think these things are accidental references, BP must have put them in there for a reason.  He was afterall a book publisher it certainly would make sense for him to use that knowledge in these puzzles Verse 2 – Abroad in America Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night! Verse 5 – a Sherlock Holmes book Lane Two twenty two Verse 6 – Treasure Island Of all the romance retold Men of tales and tunes Cruel and bold Seen here By eyes of old Verse 7 – a book by Mark Twain In jewel’s direction Is an object of Twain’s attention Verse 9 – a book by John Keats (possibly his first) The first chapter Written in water Verse 10 - ??? The natives still speak Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols.

synonyms for oak: verse 3: coliseum verse 6: scene , seen verse 9: tall tree verse 1: tower , winged (theater?)............. "tower of delight" could be a theater too......... falls (leaves) verse 4: birch verse 5: site verse 7: pole? verse 8: birch, tall? verse 10: branch, roots , arm (limb).............. Hard? verse 11: driftwood, wing (theater) verse 12: 10 by 13, trees verse 2: f[b]ifteen rows (sounds like a stadium or theatre ) [b][b]and also [/b]" [/b]build palaces to shelter (trees)[/b]" theater/theatre Part of Speech: noun Definition: stage, building for performance Synonyms: amphitheater, arena, assembly hall, auditorium, barn, boards, cinema, coliseum, concert hall, deck, drama, drive-in, footlights, hall, hippodrome, house, locale, movie, movie house, OAK , odeum, opera house, playhouse, room, scene , show hall, site thought this definition for oak was neat: sport one's oak, British . (of a university student) to indicate that one is not at home to visitors by closing the outer door of one's lodgings. outer doors, outdoors,  gates? also, i was just reading something about moss maidens or something with dutch and eyck, and the spelling for oak comes from dutch word "eik" or something like that, so of course looked for van eycks in brooklyn, seems there was someone (i'm probably spelling it wrong) wyck? van wyck, up by flushing meadows park was thinking also that "hard"  could mean oak

had a lot for autumn too..........like, fall,  3rd season, harvest, decline the 3 made me think of verse 10, the dutch was "also in its autumn" or "fall" (niagara falls)

shseverin11 wrote:: Last line of v9 "Years pass, rain falls" ...compare to Virginia Wolf's To the Lighthouse "The wind blows, the rain falls , and somehow, in the progress of the night, so too do the years pass by." Shannon Hey, I can't verify this sentence in the book.  Can someone help?  Were you thinking of a different book by that author?

It is not from the book. It is from an essay about the book, written c. 2003: hxxp://www.wjduquette.com/exlibris/ex20030401.html

Well shucks..i think its best I retract my uberfeminism themework where Woolf links to Keats via Shelly and Wollstonecraft.  DotAR is still on the table.  Thanks fb.  I owe you a klein bottle full of my finest.

"Cold as glass" in verse 1 seems to refer to a line in Ayn Rand's Anthem. No [-men-] {+man+} known to us could have built this place, nor the men known to our brothers who lived before us, and yet it was built by men. It was a great tunnel. Its walls were hard and smooth to the touch; it felt like stone, but it was not stone. On the ground there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron; it felt smooth and cold as glass . We knelt, and we crawled forward, our hand groping along the iron line to see where it would lead. But there was an unbroken night ahead. Only the iron tracks glowed through it, straight and white, calling us to follow. But we could not follow, for we were losing the puddle of light behind us. So we turned and we crawled back, our hand on the iron line. And our heart beat in our fingertips, without reason. And then we knew.

Those three words that couldve easily come together without the intention to reference Anthem.  Its a tough call.  Pretending that the nod to Ayn Rand was intentional and the context a perfect fit given the 982 train and minitrain operating nearby, I really like the I-beam distinction as a hint.  The letter "I" is a vertical line, a symbolic reference to the Roman Numeral or Greek column, and the lower case has a dot on top, perhaps the illustration harnesses that with a sphere topped column. In any case, the touch of polished steel is a good enough conclusion to something cold and sharing the qualities of a glass mirror.  I believe the line doesn't lead us to a specific object but it does guide us to expect an encounter with metal, be it rails, girders, or beams.

erexere wrote:: Those three words that couldve easily come together without the intention to reference Anthem.  Its a tough call.  Pretending that the nod to Ayn Rand was intentional and the context a perfect fit given the 982 train and minitrain operating nearby, I really like the I-beam distinction as a hint.  The letter "I" is a vertical line, a symbolic reference to the Roman Numeral or Greek column, and the lower case has a dot on top, perhaps the illustration harnesses that with a sphere topped column. In any case, the touch of polished steel is a good enough conclusion to something cold and sharing the qualities of a glass mirror.  I believe the line doesn't lead us to a specific object but it does guide us to expect an encounter with metal, be it rails, girders, or beams. The biggest problem with it being an I-beam is that it isn't very helpful or specific, even giving wide berth to the crypticness of Preiss. He seemed to think he was revealing something important or that would show us we're on the right track or that would be obvious in the right context.  An I beam fits in too many locations -- it could be a girder, it could be the support beams under the freeways (many here in Texas are I shaped), it could be a rail line, it could be a doric column (viewed from the side, it's I shaped), it could be almost anything.

I think it's a hypothesis to consider that some references will be soft-references and some will be distinct.  In Hermann Park, or Tranquility, the "I" beam as a soft-reference must be of use to narrow things down.  A close look at the Miller Theater's construction might yield those structural elements.  The "Pier" (my pet theory that the Melville quote from book title Pierre is to guide us here) concrete stone that is angled sticking out of the ground looks like an exact match to the stone in illustration 8.  The structural supports that tie the roof to that pier might be linked to "I"-beams. There's going to be at least one strong reference in the verse.  I like the 982 as the most attainable key reference to Hermann Park.  It's a big stand out at the park and someone familiar with the area who might have been observant would see know this.  The rest rely on someone having read Anthem or Pierre...and would be a good starting point for anyone not familiar with Houston.  They'd ask themselves, why is Priess referencing Ayn Rand or Herman Melville?  The park name is Melville's first name.  Maybe it's useful to consider Rand's first name applies as some conventional reference.  Ayn = sounds like "ein" or "eye-nnn" or "I-nnn".

blackboxlabs wrote:: "Cold as glass" in verse 1 seems to refer to a line in Ayn Rand's Anthem. On the ground there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron; it felt smooth and cold as glass . Actually wow, that does make sense when taken with the railroad theme of the verse, I have read Rand, but never put that together.

...me neither, though the idea came from this thread. Shucks, we're smarter than we realised.

I've been thinking of Shakespeare and the idea that he could be "him of Hard word in 3 vol."  I've googled a lot of discussion on why people think his work is hard to understand.  This is probably the wrong thread for this.

Can we update the list of references, consider how they apply in some context, and also attempt to demonstrate how accessible they are as sources or what specifically tips a person off to search for that source in order to derive a sense of direction for where any lead might have potential? Also, some references might be other media, like newspapers, historical pamphlets, map, atlas, almanac, field guide, poem, music, theater, film, radio, etc. I'd like to add or reinforce the following to the list, Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, seems to apply to verse 9 Samuel Birch: History of Ancient Pottery, seems to apply to the verse 4 but after the fact that the casque was found "between two" Greek pots/urns. Pauline Johnson: In the Shadows, poem that seems to apply to verse 10 Man of La Mancha (song from film): The Impossible Dream, seems to apply to verse 11 (It's a reference to Wright Brothers, Dare (White's grand-daughter), and a road sign that read "Dare to Dream the Impossible Dream")

someone spoke about the Literary References in The Secret as obscure, maybe, but where we think the treasures casques are, are all in large enough, or close to large enough libraries, if you went looking you could prob find the books, maps guides ect.

are you saying there is a reference if it just is similar or if there is an actual quote or passage that can be attributed to an author or work?

maltedfalcon wrote:: are you saying there is a reference if it just is similar or if there is an actual quote or passage that can be attributed to an author or work? I get you're question and now I feel I'm not getting the right point across. It might help to suggest any words or lines either together or split up in the verse may stand out in the reader's mind as borrowed from some source either exactly or even in a veiled or similar way. The catch of such a comparison might be thought of as like catching a glimpse of a Fair Folk. In the V6 catch of the Treasure Island epigraph "To the hesitating purchaser" (or is that a preface or something else?), I think there is a point to be discovered and it's going to be applicable and obvious once the casque is found. I'm thinking the title Treasure Island is a clue that the casque is on an actual island that which is rumored to actually have a treasure buried on it (see my Charleston newspaper excerpt about Keeper Andrew Johnson). Another option is to take the paraphrased quote as an indication of the author's name and link it to some kind of memorial. Ideally it's purpose will become obvious. V2's Sarmiento quote really syncs for me as a way of recognizing South America as it may apply to the Gardens of the Americas Exhibit and a closer inspection of the three statues along Basin St. as candidates for the line "only three stand watch", which of course comes after thinking about rooftops and sleeping royals in the context of standing on the street that borders the St. Louis Cemetery No.1. V9's succinct fit to Keats' epitaph following the line "The first chapter" makes it hard to resist looking for meaning in terms of finding a suitable acrostic, or a chapter title to a particular work of writing, or even simply recognizing his place of origin, place of death, or interring. Wasn't Keats of British origin? Wow, that works for me when I'm looking at the Pickett monument to the site of the Pig War in San Juan Island. Before I forget, I recall it interesting that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig (I) arbitrated the final impartial decision over which country should have claim over SJI. I think of him as an "umpire", which is a fun association when taking a moment to think "Near men with windrose" equates to "near sailors" or "near mariners", and yadda yadda, I get caught up in some baseball analogy. Anyway, I confused the issue in wanting to probe particular reference points for their purpose with also wanting to bring into question the kinds of reference materials that we might consider widely accessible and pertinent to each setting or solution-in-progress. Clearly it wasn't necessary at the time when Egbert and Siskel recovered Cleveland's casque, but it might be useful to consider "birch" could be a person's name, like those on the monolithic wall. That Samuel Birch made a written contribution on the world of Ancient Pottery and the casque was found between two "Poet Urns", I remain fascinated by what may be hidden nuance in the verse that would clarify the exactness of the Fair Folk's treasure spots.

I totally agree with you, I was just thinking we should clarify the difference between an actual quote and a passage that seems to reference a theme or work.

Now I'm taking a moment to think about some of these references. Was Preiss catering to the certain folks who would go "hey, this looks familiar...hmm...I think I've read this somewhere before," and then they just happen to have Abroad in America in their school curriculum or they just got back from a nice family vacation in Rome, Italy where they saw Keats' tomb. You'd have to be a huge Keats fan I'd think to recognize the writ/written in water line. It seems unreasonable and tilted too far afield to think he'd do such a thing. Given the way the story is set to a theme of emigration to the New World, first by fairies and next by Man, then it makes sense that Preiss might expect us hunters to take a good look at any comprehensive American History books. I'm curious what publications were on the shelves in the 5-7 year period before The Secret. Maybe we could take some time and scour the shelves a bit more and see if anything helps support some of the working theories.

I think actually he went and buried the casques, took polaroids of the immediate surrounding and landmarks., grabbed any avaialble postcards and local maps. then he went back to his desk, and with the pictures, maps and other ephemera, plus books he had on hand and his personal knowledge. he wrote the clues, based on a formula, Then he took the photos and notes and sent them to JJP When you look at it that way it is much more likely that the clues are all contsructed the same way. (as demonstrated by the two found casques)

forest_blight wrote:: From the inscription on the Wright Brothers National Memorial, very near Roanoke Island (compare to the last few lines of V11): "In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conceived by genius achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith ." I want to add the road sign on Highway 12 that loosely follows the same idea of dauntlessness and unconquerable faith, "Dare to Dream the Impossible Dream". The song from "Man of La Mancha," To dream ... the impossible dream ... To fight ... the unbeatable foe ... To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ... To run ... where the brave dare not go ... To right ... the unrightable wrong ... To love ... pure and chaste from afar ... To try ... when your arms are too weary ... To reach ... the unreachable star ... This is my quest, to follow that star ... No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ... To fight for the right, without question or pause ... To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ... And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest, That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm, when I'm laid to my rest ... And the world will be better for this: That one man, scorned and covered with scars, Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, To reach ... the unreachable star ...

Published in 1975, the Lighthouse, by Dudley Witney seems like an interesting book. Does anyone have a copy?

Got a copy of The Lighthouse (1975) by Dudley Witney today. In it's forward, by Thomas H. Raddall, beginning with "Poets of a bygone age used to talk of seaman's dangers as "the perils of the deep," but seamen themselves were never so content as when they had deep water under them and not a speck of dray land within a hundred or a thousand miles," and it talks briefly about the earliest Viking voyages to the New World. I didn't find anything I was hoping for, like an exact quote or the story about Captain Andrew Johnson. When I arrived at the pages to do with Cape Romaine, I saw some new photos I'd never seen before, one showing the lean of the lighthouse and another taken from it's top. The credits to the photos show it was the author himself, Dudley Witney who climbed up and took the pictures. I don't see why Preiss couldn't have made the same journey and taken his own picture from this landing,

How about this for a literary refernce... The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra. - Horace Walpole Horace Walpole lived in the Strawberry Hill Castle, London, which is also the town a bit across the Charles... Imagine Standing at Strawberry Hill at the X: And if this is the Castle on the Box, which is the bench, is that why all the letters are here to see? Too many options?!?!!??

Thats a fantastic quote. It brings me similarly to the Milwaukee line "a letter from the country", a well educated person from some country in question... Or as Derek Zoolander puts it:  What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can't even fit inside the building?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v5ts5pfkw90jwxm/2014-08-29_191858.jpg?dl=0 I'd seen the quote before but never in context

I wonder if Preiss was introduced to the Icelandic Sagas. They are a good source of raw context for things relating to Vikings. I heard about them while taking a foreign film class that introduced me to Scandinavian writers and film makers. Is anyone here familiar with the books or their availability in translation back when this hunt started?

Hirudiniforme wrote:: How about this for a literary refernce... The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra. - Horace Walpole Horace Walpole lived in the Strawberry Hill Castle, London, which is also the town a bit across the Charles... Nice find! Also, wouldn't you know ... his letters are apparently at the Boston Public Library. Yes, all of the letters are here to see. https://archive.org/details/horacewalpolehis1884walp

Maybe there is a word play with that.... H [2] O - Race - Wall - Pole.

Possible reference in Verse 10: "[T]he smatterer in science ... thinks, that by mouthing hard words , he proves that he understands hard things." ---Herman Melville, "White Jacket," Ch. 63 (1850). That is from one of Melville's books. Not Moby Dick, which was written in 3 volumes . Here's an excerpt from a page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville: Joseph Conrad: "Years ago I looked into Typee and Omoo, but as I didn't find there what I am looking for when I open a book I did go no further. Lately I had in my hand Moby Dick. It struck me as a rather strained rhapsody with whaling for a subject and not a single sincere line in the 3 vols of it." --Letter to Humphrey Milford, January 15 1907 hxxp://www.melville.org/others.htm Interestingly, Melville wrote 3 books in a row, 1 year apart from each other: Pierre (the Houston verse) Moby Dick (published in 3 vols) White Jacket (hard words quote above) Verse 10 mentions "The natives still speak of him of Hard word in 3 vols." This could be interpreted as some people referring to someone, and doing it in 3 volumes. However, based on the above quotes, I think the better interpretation is that "him of Hard word in 3 vols" should be read together as simply referring to Herman Melville. It is a "cute and clever" way of referring to him. A famous quote of his mentions "hard word," and he is also the man who published a famous "3 volumes." So, it is a double reference to Melville. I know there is a sign in NYC referring to the birthplace of Melville, near many of the other clues in verse 10. So, this line could be referring to that sign.

If the Melville line if inquiry doesn't pan out, I've been looking at collections of speeches or letters. I found something in 2 Vol. from William Jennings Bryan in 1909. Maybe he wrote more later on. Havent found a good way to search these obscure things yet. Another that looked interesting was The Selected Writings and Speeches of Sir Edward Coke in Three Volumes. Thats a reference that I cant see having to do with Natives...unless you're talking about people from Wales.

Egbert WOW! Great tie-ins!

animal painter wrote:: Egbert WOW! Great tie-ins! I am glad you posted a reply AP because I nearly missed Egbert's post as it was lost in the previous page of this thread. I searched for Herman Melviile and Brooklyn and found this interesting Walking Tour: hxxp://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/walk ... -york-city Lots of street to investigate now....

animal painter wrote:: Egbert WOW! Great tie-ins! I am glad you posted a reply AP because I nearly missed Egbert's post as it was lost in the previous page of this thread. I searched for Herman Melviile and Brooklyn and found this interesting Walking Tour : hxxp://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/walk ... -york-city Lots of street to investigate now....

I've never been a huge believer that the verses require library type research to solve, mostly because finding quotes and information in the 80s was seriously difficult. You could be on the right path and just never hit the right reference material, which the internet has somewhat 'fixed.' I think that there are probably easter eggs lost to those more intelligent than us, but I've never thought that we're supposed to go (for example): He of Hard word in 3 Vols. Hermann Melville wrote hard words or if you find an obscure quote on Google once said the word Hard. He wrote a book that was published in 3 volumes. Clearly this refers to him, and not only that, it refers to him in a vague way, like that he was born less than a mile from here. It's going to be something much more directly related to Melville if it's him, not from an obscure quote. (This is just an example of how I think the verses work/don't work, not meant to be a specific criticism of Egbert's find)

Also, if I posted it...it must be wrong.

Xieish wrote:: It's going to be something much more directly related to Melville if it's him, not from an obscure quote. I dunno, I quite like it. It seems less obscure, albeit less unambiguous, than The Ambiguities. We know from Houston that Preiss was into Melville, and the puzzles do seem to have odd echoes and repetitions; like Thucydides and Xenophon, for example, who reappear at the Cleveland site. (I think Gershwin would be hard to beat for a rhapsodic Brooklynite though, so we don't really need Conrad.) His bust is near The Battery, which is a place people have looked at before.

I think in general that the images and the verses are meant to apply somewhat generically to multiple locations. If you go back and read my Cambridge Common theory in Boston (which I now believe is incorrect and needs to be scrapped) it really reads like a red herring that was intentionally planted. I think Preiss knew that everyone would think "Harvard" for "In truth be free." and knew that with that & the colesium clue, everything would jump to Harvard. I suspect that as matching a verse with a painting is part of the puzzle that we see repeats like T & X, but only as red herrings, not as thematic elements woven among all 12. Obviously this is just a feeling & interpretation, nobody but BP could tell us how he was thinking when he made these, and even if he were alive I doubt he would. I wish he were alive though, not to shed light on the hunt, but to confirm/deny theories that no longer lead to diggable sites. It doensn't sound like his wife is equipped.

There are definitely some red herrings in there; the problem is knowing what's relevant and what's a diversion.

Media reference material I have a strong suspicion that Raiders of the Lost Ark released in June 1981 had some influence on the Houston puzzle. Compare setting theme of image to the scene where Indiana Jones wearing a headscarf sneaks into the hidden chamber and uses the Sun at a specific apex to project a line through the jewel on the staff of Ra onto a point in a small scale replica of an ancient city to locate the Ark's hiding spot. Houston can be put together the same way with Theater roof apex point seen through face of Atropos Key to project a line to the base of the grassy knoll. Its almost too perfect. I also have a strong suspicion based on the film Time Bandits released in November 1981, because it features dwarves and the tricorn hat wearing Napoleon, which turns out to be visually comparable to the Dwarf themed Milwaukee location that may utilize a Time Travel theme and end in the location of tricorn hat worn by Kosciouszko. I believe the time travel idea is conveyed by two references to Wells. Based on the release dates of the films, was there enough time for Preiss to implement such ideas?

I would say that is one of the least likely things I have ever read regarding this hunt, and I've read pretty much everything from here, Tweleve, SA, Reddit, MetaFilter, and other forums. I've read unlikely things before, but never an attempt to connect the movie "Time Bandits." I would put it between 0.0% and 0.00001% likely, leaning toward the former number.

Xieish wrote:: I would say that is one of the least likely things I have ever read regarding this hunt. You can't have been following the discussions very closely.

I really appreciate the "tolerance" for my efforts in this hunt and I think its just fine if 95% of what I posted is considered wrong or off track. Its an honest effort. I regret not being a professional writer, because I do have the hardest time coming out with a complex train of thought expressed in an eloquent way. It sucks because I think it spoils some peoples appetite for simple straightforwardness. All I can say is I hope people take me just seriously enough that I am doing my best. I only brought up Time Bandits or RotLA on a whim, but theres such a coincidental aspect to those highly accessible and large productions and the element of Fantasy or Historic fiction that I feel its worth notice. Time Bandits features actual dwarf actors. Milwaukee, if we agree is the location for amythest, then based on the LotJ is for certain the Dwarven jewel. The Mitchell House on 9th/10th-Wells/Grand hasnt been ruled out as a possibility for a 3 story building. Wells is a famous author and writer of War of the Worlds. How can that bot work in peoples minds as a great reference to "beating of the world"? That HG also wrote The Time Machine, the book which takes the lead if not the first forerunner in the genre of Time Travel, I cant help but wonder if the verse lines about distance in space and distance in time arent working in concert with some Wells' concept. Time Bandits is a great film borrowing and paying homage to HG Wells. It uses dwarves. Its about seeking treasure. I think its just an easy thing to keep in mind as a possible influence at the time of the Secret's creation.

I think you're spot on with the fact that BP and these movies all have a sort of generic fantasy element to them, which is why they can appear connected. I don't think it's anything stronger than lazy 1980s tropes/storytelling and enough generic elements to seem superficially connected. I don't mean to insult, it's just so unlikely that the key to unlocking these puzzles is hidden in forgettable 1980s fantasy films. It falls under the category of "BP is dead, so even if true, we could never know/confirm it or tie it to a puzzle."

I think you're missing the point. A significant reason why we're not solving may be that landscapes have changed in the last 3 decades. It might also be significant that we're not landing on the right creative idea at work in each puzzle. Was a creative idea discovered and utilized in the search for Chicago or Cleveland? I don't think so. The finders used just enough clues and ended up with a casque, but that doesn't mean BP didn't devise some method that balances just the right combination of elements needed to pinpoint the spot to the very inch. I think something huge was missed on how the LotJ can be applied. Does a movie like Time Bandits or RotLA help inspire a creative idea? It's possible. I've gone into those details in the respective threads. For Time Bandits, I think it's sufficient to consider the unique map in the film which was what the dwarves used to find the portals they abused for treasure seeking. I think this may suggest that our utilization of an actual map in a special way will guide us to the proximity of the casque. For Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's the staff of Ra and it's height with a special jewel mounted on it's top, like all the columns with special mountings upon them in image 8, is the useful reference for the Houston jewel. I believe Priess must've sought to use specific sources as part of an intertextual means to communicate the creative ideas needed to be grasped in order to find each jewel. You might think I'm just making up connections and they can't possibly serve any purpose. Well, I use to do that quite a bit more....who remembers my Battle Star Galactica theory? Lordy...that was way off the mark. It's a task in and of itself to avoid taking an idea too far. I am pulling tight as I can on the reins these days, and if I lose you, sorry. For now, I'm very excited by the prospects of using a map to Milwaukee, and focusing on an upright object with a special feature at it's top for Houston. Or in Boston, I think it's possibly about Robin Hood..."T and X" is TAX, "tax the rich and give to the poor", which works when you look at the Somerset Building as a place of extravagance across the street from a dumpy little park below an overpass frequented by homeless people.

The reason I dismiss it is because BP is dead. There is absolutely nothing in the books/rules that hints to anything else being part of the puzzle. I think you've lost the forest for the trees. This was not a beautiful masterwork of a puzzle that BP found a way to sell. This is a book that his publishing company released that he wanted to sell copies of. That's where the puzzle comes in. The book is the puzzle, nothing more, nothing less. Why would he sell a book that required the viewing of a movie that came out a year before its publication, in an era where home video was essentially non-existant? It doesn't make sense in the context of these puzzles.

It's all in your approach. You aren't born with automatic knowledge of everything. I think it's necessary to look at potential sources for that knowledge whether it be a dictionary, or a field guide on the different types of gemstones, or even some popular and good-natured family films. I understand you think it unlikely as a requirement, and I agree that it's unnecessary, but inspiration on how to tackle any problem has to exist on some level whether it comes naturally by instinct, or by trial and error, or by sneaking into the back door of the movie theater...

Unknown: In England, the erstwhile high-honored court of the Fairy Queen was now much diminished. Unknown: Fairies of England proudly bear Gamet, crown-jewel of their Queen. Unknown: According to art historian Paul Staiti, Copley was the greatest and most influential painter in colonial America. ... Boston's Copley Square, Copley Square Hotel and Copley Plaza bear his name On the subject of literary references, we should include The Faerie Queene , by Edmund Spenser. BP makes that connection fairly explicit. On page 13 in the book, it says and in the Litany of the Jewels on page 20 it also adds As WhiteRabbit has already pointed out, the Tinkerbell-type fairy in Image 11 appears to be taken directly from a painting called The Red Cross Knight , illustrating a scene from The Faerie Queen . The painting is by the famous Boston artist, John Singleton Copley , and Copley, of course, has very significant ties to Boston. Wikipedia quote: But what I don't think anyone has pointed out yet is that we should also be tying The Faerie Queen to the painting with the garnet and the immigration ties to England. That painting is Image 3, and the knight in shining armor in that painting appears to actually be Spenser's "Red Cross Knight." Note the prominent red coloring below the garnet and the distinctive emblem of the cross on the armor. (And, of course, there's also that Christian cross carved into the wall.) So there you have it: The two paintings have very explicit ties to the same classic fairy tale and both are structured around the geometry of lines and circles. (The watch dangling from the left hand of the knight is a tangent to the circular window behind the woman. The pea in the spoon is the center of the woman's globe and the spoon forms a radius. Etc. Etc.) Now have I managed to convince anyone that the two images are linked?

Unknown: In the poem, Morris uses a frame story—similar to the Canterbury Tales—concerning a group of medieval wanderers searching for a land of everlasting life. After much disillusion, they discover a surviving colony of Greeks with whom they exchange stories. The poem is divided into twelve sections, with each section being a month of the year. Another literary reference that doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet is The Earthly Paradise by WIlliam Morris (begun in 1868). BP drops a hint on page 16 when he says that the immigrants from Persia "found the sunset land -- crimson flowers, crystal fountains, sweet-scented winds -- an Earthly Paradise." (Note the capitalization of those last two words in the text.) Wikipedia describes the poem this way: You can see how that structure might have some appeal as a reference.

I ordered The First Crazy Word Book: Verbs (1982) from Amazon.com today. I'm curious to learn how the author treats certain words and if there's any chance connections to be found in this short illustrated children's word primer published by Preiss in the same year.

My copy of the First Crazy Word Book: Verbs arrived today. At a glance its weird, super short and simple for early readers. It highlights 12 verbs, one for each month of the year...sounds familiar eh? I liked the illustration of the two grumpy pirates digging a hole. One is a turtle wearing a red bandana and a cutlass/katana at his hip. This is two years before TMNT were created! Probably the best piece of info is the forward or About This Book by Byron where he describes usage and how the book contains idioms like "take a walk" and "take a rest".

Making a note here that "dauntless resolution" appears in Don Quixote, volume II, chapter XXXVI, last line. The same words appear on the Wright Memorial. Possibly a connection to Image 3/Verse11. Also, it seems safe to say Don Quixote puts his old nag Rocinante up on a pedestal.

I may be missing something. How is a Don Quixote reference gonna help us here?

Don Quixote came to my attention when I wanted to know about the Mirlo sign that says "Dare to dream the impossible dream" and its relating to the Virginia Dare name and the sense that the message applies to the Wright Bros who achieved their dream of flight. The Impossible Dream was a widely familiar song from the Man of la Mancha film where Peter O'Toole plays Don Quixote. Feeling inspired, I sat down at the beach one day and read a bunch of Miguel Cervantes' book, but failed to gain further inspiration. Then I recently learned more about Roanoke history and discovered the legend of the white doe and the builder of the White Doe Inn being the same builder for the Chico lifesaving station and the Mirlo sign. If I were to draw a conclusion, I'd say the White Doe Inn strongly inspired Preiss and the major role of Inns in the settings for Don Quixote, Sancho, and princess Dulcinea, seems in line with a combined vision. There is also the Baum-Midgett family correlation to Oz-Munchkin. Another facinating conclusion might be drawn to the name of one of the first ships of the Ralph Lane colonization attempt (those which became the Roanoke Lost Colony) was named Dorothy. WTF?, how cool is that? The other connection I've drawn is the contemporary timeline of Cervantes activities with Virginia Dare and John White. I think the whole background influence of the conflict with Spain matters. As far as literary material goes, I can see Preiss reaching for either Shakespeare or Cervantes (both died in 1616) for writing that best fits the period. "Dauntless resolution" doesn't seem that likely of words to be used. They appear together on the Wright memorial, and also in the last line of a chapter in Don Quixote. I think that's worth consideration based on the timeline constraint of historical events and people active in that period. The question I have is did Don Quixote serve as an inspiration to the words chosen for the Wright memorial? A long shot, but something that has me gently scratching my head about.

I Just wanted to make sure I'm not the only one still spending way too much of my free time attempting to connect Blade Runner to the Fountain of Youth.

I downloaded a PDF copy of Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning by Richard Hinckley Allen (1899). In it I discovered a really interesting section on the history of the Big Dipper and some great notes on Arabian astronomy.

E. Pauline Johnson uses the word shadow quite a bit and also talks about a great grey rock. This is a nice parallel imho to the Vanishing, which is the Nootka perspective on the Fair Folk and how they deal with the coming of the white man. Legends of Vancouver

Unknown: The Citadel, by Gilbert Parker (1862-1932) A night wind-swept and bound about with glee Of Erebus; all light and cheer within; White restless hands that falter, then begin To weave a music-voiced fantasy. And life, and death, and love, and weariness, And unrequital, thrid the maze of sound; And one voice saith, "Behold, the lost is found!" And saith not any more for joyfulness. Out of the night there comes a wanderer, Who waits upon the threshold, and is still; And listens, and bows down his head, until His grief-drawn breath startles the heart of her. The victor vanquished, at her feet he fell, A prisoner in his conquered citadel. Verse 5 is taunting me with how much it sounds like poetry, and yet the closest thing I can find is this:

Reading an old hardcover copy (maybe not old enough, 1987 Readers Digest Assoc.) of Treasure Island today, I continue to wonder how important it is to solving verse 6. It contains the "TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER" and a small 4 page leaflet bio. It distinguishes RLS as belonging to a family of lighthouse builders. His grandfather Robert Stevenson as well as his father and two uncles had a hand in building more than 80 lighthouses. Perhaps it wouldn't be a such a bad idea to look for some kind of lighthouse connection in this puzzle.

erexere wrote:: ... Perhaps it wouldn't be a such a bad idea to look for some kind of lighthouse connection in this puzzle. Nail on head, erexere. Nobody has mentioned it before, but have you looked into the Cape Romain lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers? I think that may be our link.

Four21, Im sorry, but I dont trust you are in favor of anything Im saying. I have much respect for your work in this hunt, but with all the trolling as of late, Ive become uncertain with your approach(-es). Although the Cape Romaine Lights have been my primary focus, I dont mean for the RLS-Lighthouse connection to specifically imply Cape Romaine. I think many of the Lights around SC should be investigated. When I look at the last lines of verse 6, I wonder if "white house..." isnt itself a hint to look into "lighthouse" history.

erexere wrote:: Four21, Im sorry, but I dont trust you are in favor of anything Im saying. I have much respect for your work in this hunt, but with all the trolling as of late, Ive become uncertain with your approach(-es). Although the Cape Romaine Lights have been my primary focus, I dont mean for the RLS-Lighthouse connection to specifically imply Cape Romaine. I think many of the Lights around SC should be investigated. When I look at the last lines of verse 6, I wonder if "white house..." isnt itself a hint to look into "lighthouse" history. Still, that was pretty funny though. I chuckled.

Back in 2008, slappybuns made a note about a couple instances having play on words. I think there's a fairly straightforward cultural link to each. p.158, "all in a Rohe " = all in a row. Rohe is from Auchen of the German Empire. p. 166, "singing in the reign" = singing in the rain. This is from the Union Jack of the British Empire. If these are meant to be leads in any way, then perhaps something about "rows" is useful to the German (Milwaukee) puzzle and the British puzzle (either the Garnet of Image3 or a connection to Verse9) might have an important connection to "rain".

In the 1982 Byron Priess book, The First Crazy Word Book: Verbs , thirteen verbs are introduced, twelve of them are assigned to a Month calendar and each is aristically demonstrated in various ways using animals doing activities. January: fly February: give March: find April: look May: ride June: help July: hit August: play September: take October: open November: eat December: jump Last, having no month: make I only want to share this, because some people might find it fun. One pair of illustrated pages almost entertains the idea that it could relate to the Secret. Consider the ruby image, which drew wilhouse to the Zoo area of Hermann Park in Houston. Although ruby is the birthstone for July, I'm looking at the verb for the month of April: look. Shortly after I write this, I'll see about adding a picture so people can see what I'm trying to describe. Basically, at the top of the page a lion sits in a chair with a telescope, gazing at the moon. There's a charging elephant in the middle of four palm trees and a scared porcupine. Unfortunately, there is no genie, camel or rhino, but I rather like the idea that the lion is sitting on the top of the hill with a tripod.

Unknown: The shy in-dwellers of every ashorin, baobab, and mahogany, winged-friend of each river, of every bird, beast and insect, were wafted away on the Southern Trades, and fluttered down, like a windfall of butterflies, far from the tribal warfare and slave traders, upon the islands of the Carribees and the New World's eastern shore. And from Hellas itself, then vanished at last the few surviving Centaurs, Satyrs, and Nymphs, sad scattered remnants of the glory that was Greece . They were transported, willed away to the Islands of the Blest--the Hesperides--by the final acto fo their dying patron, Pan . p.17 In the pages of the National Geographic November 1971 article about the pan drum of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, it also contains the words "the glory that was Greece". The same article also contains the words "jump up" in quote marks just as they are in quotes on p.23, in exactly the same context of a contest of drumming.