Trivia / By the Waters of Babylon

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Many have noted that the description of the "Great Burning" which destroyed the US could fit well with nuclear warfare, though the author likely didn't know or intend that, since it was published in 1937 before the first atomic weapons. The "deadly mist" that fell on New York City was likely meant to be gas, not nuclear fallout, and poison the survivors feared in the area could have resulted from that. However, it works both ways and thus could be read as prescient in the Cold War or beyond. The inspiration for the story was Guernica, a Basque town in Spain, being mostly destroyed by German bombing (which also inspired Pablo Picasso's famous eponymous painting).

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