* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** The first three books "The Sword in the Stone", "The Witch in the Wood", and "The Ill-Made Knight" were originally published as separate books before White rewrote them and had them published as part of "The Once and Future King". While "The Sword in the Stone" is still in print, the latter two are not.
** The BBC does not have the rights to release their 2014 radio dramatization of ''The Once and Future King'' as an audiobook, due to the rights of the novel being held by Disney ''(WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone)'' and the estates of Creator/LernerAndLoewe (''Theatre/{{Camelot}}''). They gave the BBC the rights to broadcast their radio drama, but not to commercially release it.
* RealitySubtext: White wrote the majority of the series, including ''Literature/TheBookOfMerlyn'', during the darkest days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It definitely shows, if you're looking for it. The scene with the ants in ''The Book of Merlyn'' is an explicit parallel to totalitarian regimes and Nazism in particular. And Mordred's faction in ''The Candle in the Wind'' are described in ways intended to compare them to Nazis. Plus there's Merlin's angry lecture to Sir Kay in ''The Queen of Air and Darkness'', although that's less subtext than outright ''text''.
* ReferencedBy:
** In ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', Magneto is reading ''The Once and Future King'' in his plastic prison. Professor Xavier in ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' asks his class to analyze the following passage.
--->"The past must be obliterated and the new start made. Let us now start fresh without remembrance rather than live forward and backward at the same time."
** The third book in ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices'' is titled ''The Queen of Air and Darkness''.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/TheGoldenBoysLastTemptation'' ([[http://dark_mark.tripod.com/prez.html link]]), Dream of the Endless references the ending of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'':
--->'''Dream:''' ''"Once every ten years, you may pass on the dream to one you believe worthy. You may not reveal the fate of Prez Rickard to anyone else. What they do with their dream afterward is up to them. As with King Arthur, and the squire he spared to tell the tale of Camelot. All Truths begin as Dreams."''
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The rights to ''The Once and Future King'' are divided between Disney who did the animated film of ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' and the estates of Alex Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner who created the musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}''. When the BBC decided to dramatize the book for Radio 4, they had to get permission from both of them to do it. However the BBC does not have the rights to release their production as an audiobook.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In November 1941, White had sent the revised first three volumes, "The Candle in the Wind" and "The Book of Merlyn" to all be published in one volume. But White's publishers disagreed for two reasons: 1.) the paper shortage of World War II (which also delayed publication of Tolkien's ''Lord of the Rings'') and 2.) the openly pacifist sentiments of the final volume might've lowered public morale. The book was eventually published in 1958, ''without'' "The Book of Merlyn", but with elements from it reworked into "The Sword in the Stone".
* WriteWhatYouKnow: By all accounts, White's mother was a very cruel and domineering figure who alternated between smothering and emotionally abusing her son; she would be the inspiration for Morgause.
----