Henry Ford's name was almost synonymous with automobile during the early decades of the 20th century. The Model T Ford, which he introduced in 1908, brought owning a car within the reach of average Americans - though Grandfather Priest's car is a much more aristocratic make and model.
During Ty Cobb's career as an outfielder with the Detroit Tigers (1905-1921) he set 90 baseball records. But it is curious that Lucius apparently expects the grandson to whom he is telling the story in 1961 to recognize his name along with Babe Ruth's.
George Herman "Babe" Ruth, Jr., played baseball for the New York Yankees from 1920-1934. During that time he was probably the most famous athlete in the U.S.
A major character in two of Faulkner's late novels - Go Down, Moses (1942) and Intruder in the Dust (1948) - Lucas Beauchamp, the illegitimate mixed race descendant of Lucius McCaslin, is only mentioned once in The Reivers, as Bobo's cousin.
Acheron's trainer - the "white man" whom Lycurgus refers to "Mr Walter" (221) - must be the same man whom a member of the crowd at the race calls "Walter Clapp" (235).
The young black who rides Acheron against Lucius and Lightning is named McWillie. According to Lucius, "for size and age and color [he] might have been Lycurgus' twin" (220).
According to Ned, the "hollow" where they "stable" Lightning before and between races is on land "that belongs to one of Possum's [Parsham's] church members" (217).
On the morning of the first horse race, Lucius sees "seven or eight people, all men," in the hotel dining room (209). Lucius refers to them as "people like us except that they lived" in and around Parsham; "some were in overalls; all but one were tieless" (209-10). Later he calls them "aficionados," in reference to their passion for horse racing (220). The one wearing a tie is one of the two men who talk with Boon about the upcoming race.
