History Main / FictionalDocument

* ''Under the Hood'', Hollis Mason's autobiography, and a ''Tales From the Black Freighter'' comic in ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}.''
** Also parts of Dr. Manhattan's back story.
** Hell, pretty much all of the 11 backup features in Watchmen count:

-->'''Chapter 4:''' ''Dr. Manhattan: Super-Powers and the Superpowers'' by Dr. Milton Glass, discussing Manhattan's role in shaping the world of Watchmen.
-->'''Chapter 5:''' ''A Man on Fifteen Dead Man's Chests'', a history on ''Tales From the Black Freighter'' from ''Treasure Island Treasury of Comics''.

-->'''Chapter 7:''' ''Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas'', an essay written by Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II)

-->'''Chapter 11:''' ''After the Masquerade: Superstyle and the art of humanoid watching'', an interview with Adrian Veidt from 1975.

* Much of Karel Čapek's ''Literature/WarWithTheNewts'' consists of fictional newspaper excerpts commenting on the situation with the Newts (and, eventually, the eponymous war).

* ''Film/MirrorMask'' has "The Really Useful Book" and "A Complete History of Everything"
* In the original novel ''Frankenstein'', the actual method of bringing [[FrankensteinsMonster the Monster]] back to life is never detailed. In the Creator/MelBrooks film ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', this fact is parodied by the discovery of a book by Frankenstein entitled simply ''How I Did It''.
** Which is likely a parody of the book he made of his work in the Universal movies, ''The Secret of Life and Death''.
** This is sort of HilariousInHindsight today after O.J. Simpson wrote a similarly titled book about how he murdered his wife (hypothetically, [[SarcasmMode of course]]).

* [[DonaldDuck The Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook]], the most stupendous and comprehensive guide to everything.

* ''Mr. Bunnsy has an Adventure'', a Beatrix Potter pastiche from Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents''

* The novels and short stories of Kilgore Trout, a failed science fiction author who's a recurring character in several of Kurt Vonnegut's novels. His 117 novels and 2000 short stories were published by a disreputable porn company and used as filler material for trashy erotic magazines though, so only a handful of other characters have ever heard of Kilgore Trout. His novel ''Venus On The Half Shell'' ended up making the transition [[{{Defictionalization}} from fictional document to real book]] when sf writer Philip José Farmer wrote and published it under the name Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut was apparently not amused, and the byline in later editions was Farmer's own name).

* Everything published by Whateley Press in the Literature/WhateleyUniverse, including "Introduction to the Modern Theory of Mutant Powers, a Whateley Press textbook" by Filbert R. Z. Quintain, M.S., Ph.D., F.A.A.S.

Common types of fictional document include:

* ''The Encylopedia Galactica'', in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series.

* ''MagicTheGathering'' has numerous fictional documents that are quoted in cards' flavor text and in some of the novels and comics. Some of the notable ones include ''The Antiquities War'', an epic poem about the Brothers' War that the comics and novel are [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis supposedly based on]]; ''Sarpadian Empires'', whose first six volumes are quoted in Fallen Empires flavor text and whose seventh volume was printed as a card in Time Spiral; and ''The Underworld Cookbook'', which is only quoted on three cards (one of which is from the self-parody expansion Unhinged), but whose author's name, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, is the longest word ever to appear on a Magic card. ''The Love Song of Night and Day'' actually exists and was written as part of the world-building for the Mirage expansion, and can be read [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/145 here.]]

* Although not many appear in the game itself, information about a few characters from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is taken as extracts from in-universe documents, such as Cecil B. Heimerdinger's daily journals or a Zaunite field report of an attempt to track down Twitch (it doesn't go well). A few other characters simply have brief quotes, such as from the Noxian war report describing Irelia's OneManArmy stand.

If your story is made entirely of Fictional Documents, it's a ScrapbookStory (so please list it there rather than here); if the {{paratext}} quotes from these, it's quoting the EncyclopediaExposita. And if the story ''itself'' appears in the story, it's RecursiveCanon. If it merely claims to have been written by a character within the setting, it probably falls under the LiteraryAgentHypothesis. In a VideoGames, they are almost always used as FlavorText.

* The fic [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], is full of them and serves as one itself, being an InUniverse historical essay on the history of Equestria, written with an [[TheConspiracy insane conspiracy theorist's edge]]. As it possesses its own bibliography and cites these "sources", the fic is filled with all sorts of [[PlayedForLaughs referenced books]], the most notable of which being, "What are Fingers? Anthro Puberty and You", "On Heroism: The Glory of Celestia and the Equestrian Civil War", and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "How the Sea-Pony Wished Upon a Star and Unknowingly Started Racial Prosecution Under An Emergent Fascist Regime: A Collection of Filly’s Tales and Legends That Start Off Whimsical But End in Destruction and Death".]]
* [[Fanfic/{{Exoria}} The Exoria Files.]]

* In FanFic/AGrowingAffection, Naruto's maternal grandfather was a prolific writer, and implied to be the reason Naruto was able to ghost write for Jiraiya. Hinata is a fan of his fantasy trilogy ''The Kunoichi and the Priest.''

* In the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' story ''Fanfic/WearingRobertsCrown'' both Robert Baratheon and Tyrion Lannister are published authors (helped by Robert's invention of the printing press). Tyrion writes books based on his exploits as a gentleman-adventurer. Robert's known publication was a bit controversial since it was a sex manual - he may have also written an agricultural advice book.
** Also Varys publishes a newspaper.

* [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/48073/the-history-of-the-human-war The History of Human War]] is a book the Mane Six read in [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/50850/innocence-once-lost Innocence once lost]]

* How could anyone forget the great Depression Era novel ''O Brother Where Art Thou'' by Sinclair Beckstein, as cited by director John Sullivan in the 1941 ''Film/SullivansTravels''?
** No real details about the book are ever given, but the Coen brother's 2000 film [[Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou of the same name]] fits the supposed saga nicely in plot and details.

* One of the many details of the final draft script of ''Film/StarWars'' that didn't make it into the finished cut of the movie [[note]]Along with the scene where Luke's friend Biggs (who was killed in the Death Star attack) was introduced and a large amount of George Lucas' legendarily awful dialogue that was script-doctored out of existence[[/note]] but preserved in Creator/AlanDeanFoster's novelization was the ''Journal of the Whills'', which seems to have been intended as a history of the Empire and its collapse. This does get a few sly references in the movies, especially the prequels; it's amazing how awesome [[UnreliableNarrator R2-D2]] (who supposedly told the story to the Willis) gets when nobody's looking...

* Some chapters of ''[[Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird]]'' consist of letters written to or by the residents of Haven/Skyhold, and one chapter consists of three {{after action report}}s by Scout Harding.

** ''The Book of Mazarbul'', the record of Balin's [[ApocalypticLog doomed]] Moria colony in ''The Lord of the Rings''
* ''The Encylopedia Galactica'', Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series.
* ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'', P. K. Dick's ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle''

* Speaking of Stephen King, a large percentage of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' is excerpts from books, magazine articles, or investigative reports relating to various characters and events.

* ''The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism'', George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
* Creator/JorgeLuisBorges LOVED this trope. The biggest example is the collection of short stories called ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan'', where all the stories were are fictional books.

* The excerpts from Princess Irulan's various scholarly works (and other people's, for that matter) that [[EncyclopediaExposita appear as chapter headers]] throughout the ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' novels.

** Pratchett is very fond of this trope; other examples from Literature/{{Discworld}} include ''The Necrotelicomnicon'' aka ''Liber Paginarum Fulvarum'' (a TomeOfEldritchLore), ''The Joy of Tantric Sex with Illustrations for the Advanced Student, by A. Lady'', ''The Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish'', ''The Little Folks' Book of Flower Fairies'', ''The Bumper Fun Grimoire'', ''How to Dynamically Manage People for Dynamic Results in a Caring Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically'', ''Wellcome to Ankh-Morporke, Citie of One Thousand Surprises'', and many more, usually parodic versions of real books. The ''[[UniverseCompendium Discworld Companion]]'' includes a full list.

** Holmes himself was the author of numerous monographs regarding the science of detection, including ones on the analysis of typewritten documents, on the dating of handwriting, on the tracing of footprints, on cryptanalysis, and of course on the different types of cigar(ette) ash.

** The Baker Street museum in London has a number of books lying about that were purportedly written by Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty. One of Holmes' texts is a book about [[MythologyGag bees]].

* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' features ''An Imperial Affliction'' as well as ''The Price of Dawn'' and the following sequels. The epigraph is from ''An Imperial Affliction'', as a reference to ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', whose epigraph is also from another fictional book.

* In Walter Moers's ''Literature/TheThirteenAndAHalfLivesOfCaptainBluebear‎'' there is ''[[EncyclopediaExposita The Enclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs]]''. There are also many imaginary books and plays including ''The Voltigork's Vibrobass'', an experimental drama which lasted 240 hours and had a literal cast of thousands by Wilfred the Wordsmith and the bestseller ''How Dank Was My Valley'' by Psittachus Rumplestilt.

* The Space Corps Directive of ''Series/RedDwarf'', dedicated to listing every possible rule of the [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Space Corps]] in extreme detail. [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Rimmer]] frequently attempts to justify himself by quoting random rule numbers from it, only for [[MrExposition Kryten]] to recite the (entirely irrelevant) actual rule. Shortly after the above quote, Holly beams a hologramattic copy of the Space Corp Directives into Rimmer's hands, proving it does exist. It's much thinner than you might think; the rules are apparently in small type.

* ''MagicTheGathering'' has numerous fictional documents that are quoted in cards' flavor text and in some of the novels and comics. Some of the notable ones include ''The Antiquities War'', an epic poem about the Brothers' War that the comics and novel are [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis supposedly based on]]; ''Sarpadian Empires'', whose first six volumes are quoted in Fallen Empires flavor text and whose seventh volume was printed as a card in Time Spiral; and ''The Underworld Cookbook'', which is only quoted on three cards (one of which is from the self-parody expansion Unhinged), but whose author's name, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, is the longest word ever to appear on a Magic card. ''The Love Song of Night and Day'' actually exists and was written as part of the worldbuilding for the Mirage expansion, and can be read [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/145 here.]]
** The end of the ''Rise Of The Eldrazi'' block had quotes from a book called the War Diaries as flavour for some cards. It seems like an account of the terrible fighting against the Cthulu-sytle horrors of the Eldrazi, and contains sentences about crucical turning points.

** If that is not Lovecraftian enough, also available is the ''R'lyeh Text'', translated as ''Codex of Lurie'', which I believe you find in a nudie mag.

* Although not many appear in the game itself, a few characters' lores from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' are taken as extracts from in-universe documents, such as Cecil B. Heimerdinger's daily journals or a Zaunite field report of an attempt to track down Twitch (it doesn't go well). A few other characters simply have brief quotes, such as from the Noxian war report describing Irelia's OneManArmy stand.

** And less popular, the Trelawney Thorpe: Spark of the Realm books, which are from ''British'' publishers.

* ''Webcomic/UnwindersTallComics'' are ''loaded'' with fictional books. Unwinder is a fan of the ''After Dark'' series, a [[Literature/{{Twilight}} romance novels involving zombies who are actually super-attractive athletes who can also fly]], as well as the epically dull sci-fi {{doorstopper}}s of Gary P. Rastov. Excerpts from all of these are provided, of course. \\

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' features the "classic novella" ''Lo The Plow Shall Till The Soil Of Redemption''. One critic (i.e. Ron) describes it thusly: "snobby, pompous, overwritten, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the pictures [are] in black and white]]!"

** An innumerable amount of reference works in Twilight Sparkle's library. Of particular note is the one that contains the backstory of Nightmare Moon and apparently some other major Equestrian threats, such as [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks The Dazzlings]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' has the "Yipper" franchise, which is shown to have comic books, a tv series, and (most prominently) trading cards. Apparently it's about cartoon dogs who fly airplanes.

* The titular document in ''[[Literature/TheStormlightArchive The Way of Kings]]'' is a philosophical text on how a king should behave.

* In an episode of ''Series/CornerGas'', at the end Brent does an "if you want to find out more, visit your local Library!" segment with the books featured in the episode. One of them he mentions is something "the prop guy made up" but is "a good read".

** Its ''Franchise/DragonAge'' [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual successors]] are full of fictional documents - books with notes on the setting, silly poetry, letters between characters, and [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Varric's]] schlocky novels (Hawke: "'Hard in Hightown.' 'Siege Harder.' What does that even MEAN? Ohh, Varric must be stopped.") Particularly prevalent is [[IdeologicalScreed Anders's Manifesto]], which the rebel mage appears to have stuffed in every book on Hawke's shelf, left on every table, and dropped in the fireplace. (Some fans have even attempted a {{Defictionalization}} of it.)

** There series in general offers hundreds per game, dating back to ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]''. These documents range from full blown [[InGameNovel In-Game Novels]] like the ''2920: The Last Year of the First Era'' series, ''The Real Barenziah'', ''King Edward'', ''A Dance in the Fire'', and ''The Wolf Queen'' to religious texts such as ''For My Gods and Emperor'' and ''36 Lessons of Vivec'', to numerous historical works which help fill in the thousands of years of backstory, to simple notes handwritten by the world's inhabitants to make the world feel more alive (you can literally find the grocery lists of [=NPCs=]). Many of the histories presented within the game [[UnreliableCanon are contradictory and at odds with each other]], leaving it up to the reader to piece together the history of Tamriel for him/herself. For tropes relating to these works, see ''Literature/TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks'' page.

* Any number of texts found within ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games, ranging from popular histories such as ''The Real Barenziah'' and ''A Brief History of the Empire'', through religious texts such as ''For My Gods and Emperor'' and ''36 Lessons of Vivec'', to novels such as ''A Dance in Fire'' and ''The Wolf Queen''. Many of the histories presented within the game are contradictory and at odds with each other, leaving it up to the reader to piece together the history of Tamriel for him/herself.
** The best is ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'''s ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''. It's... umm... a play. A side-quest involves finding actors willing to be in it.
** And Boethiah's Pillow book is unmentionable.
** There is a good laugh in ''The Madness of Pelagius,'' after having read ''The Wolf Queen vol. 8,'' which describes an amulet given to Pelagius that robs the wearer of sanity over the course of years.
* Also from Bethesda, the Wasteland Survival Guide in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the quality of which depends on how much work you put into it, including none at all!

* In ''Fanfiction/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the second chapter is a life-sized but completely fictional BBC online article detailing Chrysalis' arrival in the city, fake comments and adverts included.

* One of the many details of the final draft script of ''Film/StarWars'' that didn't make it into the finished cut of the movie [[note]]Along with the scene where Luke's friend Biggs (who was killed in the Death Star attack) was introduced and a large amount of George Lucas' legendarily awful dialogue that was script-doctored out of existence[[/note]] but preserved in Creator/AlanDeanFoster's novelization was the ''Journal of the Whills'', which seems to have been intended as a history of the Empire and its collapse.

* ''{{Exalted}}'' has a lot of these, some of which have been [[{{Defictionalization}} Defictionalized.]] Notable examples include ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore The Broken-Winged Crane]]'', ''[[BigBookOfWar The Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier]]'', ''The Book of Three Circles'', ''The White Treatise'', ''The Black Treatise'', ''The Book of Bone and Ebony'', and ''Oadenol's Codex''.

* Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling'' revolves around ''The Deliverance of Fort Bucklow'', the spectacularly awful result of {{Rudyard Kipling}}'s descent into FilibusterFreefall.

** The OtherWiki has a rather extensive list of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_arcane_literature Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature]], most of which falls under this trope. ''The Book of Eibon'', ''Unaussprechlichen Kulten'', and ''De Vermis Mysteriis'' are mentioned nearly as often as ''The Necronomicon''.

** WhiteWolf hasn't left their [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness Worlds of]] [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness Darkness out]] either, with examples such as ''The Book of Nod'', ''The Ericyes Fragments'', ''The Prince's Primer'', ''Revelations of the Dark Mother'', ''The Silver Record'', ''Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth'', ''Rites of the Dragon'', and ''The Testament of Longinus''.

* Several games have used fictional documents as part of the documentation. Well-known examples include text adventures from Creator/{{Infocom}} and the ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' series, as well as ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}''.

* Footnotes in ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' seem to be written from in-universe perspective, sometimes referring the more curious reader to in-universe documents on the subjects such as the biology of werewolves or the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie witch rings]] of Beloria.

* [[FootnoteFever Footnotes]] in ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' seem to be written from in-universe perspective, sometimes referring the more curious reader to in-universe documents on the subjects such as biology of werewolves or [[NegativeSpaceWedgie witch rings]] of Beloria. Sadly, we don't have any way to read them.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has stacks of these, from trading cards to school textbooks to government pamphlets to wizarding comic books.
** Not to mention JKR's predilection for [[{{Defictionalization}} turning some of them into published works]] (''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'').

* And of course the aforementioned ''Necronomicon'', spawned in the [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]] [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos horrorverse]] but since widely exported to other canons and other media.
** Now subverted as an actual Necronomicon has been published.
** In fact, ''many'' different Necronomicons have been published over the years. Their quality... varies. Some are merely collections of Mythos stories. Others run the gamut from psudeophilosophical ramblings to attempts at a "genuine" version of the Mad Arab's writings.

* The Others from the ''Literature/NightWatch'' series have effected The Great Treaty between Light and Darkness (hereinafter referred to as The Treaty) that restricted the century-old bloodshed between the Light Ones and the Dark Ones, regularized the relations between the two factions and stipulated formation and functioning of the Watches.

* Nix's other series, The Old Kingdom books, feature quite a few of these; of particular note is ''The Book of the Dead'', which follows people around, can only be opened by a necromancer and closed by an uncorrupted Charter mage, and causes the reader to forget the parts of it that would be too unpleasant to remember until needed. Slightly more mundane, but still magical, texts include ''The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting'', which is about how to see into the past; ''In The Skin of a Lyon'', which is about how to turn into an animal; and ''Creatures by Nagy'', which is a bestiary of unpleasant Free Magic monsters. It's that kind of series.

* One of the many details of the final draft script of StarWars that didn't make it into the finished cut of the movie [[note]]Along with the scene where Luke's friend Biggs (who was killed in the Death Star attack) was introduced and a large amount of George Lucas' legendarily awful dialogue that was script-doctored out of existence[[/note]] but preserved in AlanDeanFoster's novelization was the ''Journal of the Whills'', which seems to have been intended as a history of the Empire and its collapse.