The following literary works, references or authors have been mentioned or shown in the series to date. Please see their main articles for details; this page is primarily for listing.
Locke mentions this novel when speaking to Jack about the symbolic "white rabbit" (his father's elusive image); it is also the title of the episode. ("White Rabbit")
Mr. Eko gives Locke a book that he found in the Arrow. When Locke opens the book, he realizes that it is the Bible and also finds that part of the center of the book has been removed. Inside this opening is a missing piece of the Swan Orientation Film. ("What Kate Did")
Jack asks Kate "Tell me something, how come every time there's a hike into the heart of darkness you sign up?" when Kate volunteers to go on the boar hunt with Locke. ("Walkabout")
Charlie tells Hurley, "One minute you're happy-go-lucky, good-time Hurley, and the next you're Colonel bloody Kurtz!" ("Numbers")
Colonel Kurtz is a character in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, which is loosely based on Heart of Darkness.
This novel is mentioned by Sawyer. "Folks down on the beach might have been doctors and accountants a month ago, but it's Lord of the Flies time, now." ("...In Translation")
Locke is shown holding this book upside down, in the Swan, flipping through the pages as if he's trying to find loose papers between them. ("The Long Con")
In the flashback scene in the van, Hurley's friend Johnny says to him, "Stay gold, Ponyboy." This is a reference to the Outsiders and this phrase being used in the book is, in turn, a reference to the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". ("Everybody Hates Hugo")
Kate finds Sawyer sitting on the beach reading this book. Boone said that he was reading it while on vacation in Australia. According to Sawyer, the book had just washed ashore. ("Confidence Man")
Henry Gale is the name of Dorothy's uncle. When initially captured, Ben (then insisting his name was "Henry Gale") claimed to have come to the Island in a balloon, as did the Wizard. The real Henry Gale apparently did.
There are no real life references to Hemingway being jealous of Dostoevsky's work or feeling in his shadow. This may have been made up for the show for dramatic effect.
Ben sarcastically tells Locke that he prefers King when given a copy of The Brothers Karamazov to read while in confinement.
Damon Lindelof has said that his novels (especially the Stand) have been a major influence on Lost. Numerous other ties exist, such as a mutual admiration between the writers.
An early Tang Dynasty (618-907) poem by Chinese poet Li Bai, "Third Eye Ascended in Dreams" is seen as calligraphy in flashbacks of Jin and Sun's home.
The content itself is surreal, being about a man who journeys far in a dream as though in a vivid parallel dimension, only to be abruptly awoken to the mundaneness and bitterness of reality. This is a paradox uncovering that dreams can be better at revealing the truth than reality.
Locke attempts to recreate his brief sighting of the blast door map on a page from a 1939 book of poems by Alfred de Musset, called Sur les Débuts de Melles Rachel et Pauline (On the Beginnings of Miss Rachel and Miss Pauline).
