What Gavin Stevens in "Knight's Gambit" somewhat facetiously calls the "second" "American Expeditionary Force in France" that "began to land in Europe in 1919" are the many Americans who toured or moved to Europe in the years after the First World War (256). The "first" A.E.F., of course, were the one million soldiers in the U.S. Army who landed in France to join the British and French forces fighting Germany; they had returned home by 1919.
The woman in Go Down, Moses whom Lucas calls a "yellow slut" - that is, she is light-skinned and promiscuous - was (perhaps unofficially) married to and (certainly unofficially) divorced from Oscar, one of the workers on the McCaslin plantation; she came to Jefferson from Memphis, and returned there after Roth Edmonds "voced" them, as Lucas puts it (115).
While hunting for the first time in Go Down, Moses Ash is talking about this "new light-colored woman who nursed next door to Major de Spain's" when he is surprised by a yearling bear in the path (309). It's clear that this young "nurse" - that is, wet nurse - has caught his eye, but nothing else about her is known. Our decision to identify her as biracial is based on the way 'light-colored' or '-complexioned' is used elsewhere in the fictions.
Over 3000 U.S. servicemen were killed or wounded during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but this entry reflects the unusual way that Charles Mallison recalls December 7th, 1941, in "Knight's Gambit" - "a Jap dropped a bomb on another American" (254).
According to "Knight's Gambit," the elements of the uniform worn by the pilots of the Royal Air Force - "the blue of Britain and the hooked wings of a diving falcon and the modest braid of rank: but above all the blue, the color the shade which the handful of Anglo Saxon young men had established and decreed as [a] visual synonym of glory" - became so celebrated that "an association of American haberdashers or gents' outfitters had adopted it as a trade slogan" (206).
The term "butler" in this instance from "Knight's Gambit" is a euphemism, used somewhat facetiously to describe the subordinate gangsters who take part in the funeral services for Mr. Harriss: "eight or ten of the butlers in their sharp clothes and arm-pitted pistols brought him home to lie in state" (168).
Harry Wong is not a character in "Knight's Gambit" but one of the three hypothetical men whom Gavin Stevens uses to represent the veterans of World War I: Gavin says, "I am no more just John Doe of Jefferson, Mississippi; I am also . . . Harry Wong of San Francisco" (243).
In "Knight's Gambit" Paoli is the "famous Italian fencing-master" who taught Max Harriss (169). According to Harriss' unnamed sister, Max was "the best pupil Paoli had had in years" (190).
In "Knight's Gambit" Charles Mallison refers by name to the conductor of the train that takes him from training through Jefferson on his way to Texas: "Mr McWilliams, the conductor, was standing at the vestibule steps with his watch in his hand" (255).
In "Knight's Gambit" Robert Markey is "a lawyer" and a man in Memphis "city politics . . . who had been at Heidelberg" with Gavin Stevens and now lives in the city (201). Gavin contacts him for assistance in keeping track of Max Harriss when he goes to Memphis.
