Forum: Lost Stories

Nixon was a used car salesman

PotomacBob 🚫

It was before the Internet, so musta been hardback or paperback. Musta been alternate history, I guess. It might have been one short story in a collection of short stories. All I really remember about the story was that Richard Nixon was a used car salesman - don't remember whether that was after he was in politics or whether he was never into politics at all in the story. Don't recall whether that was an important part of the story or just a random detail.
I don't remember the title, the author or anything else about the story. At the time I read the story, I did know who Richard Nixon was, so I must have read it after he was vice president. It could have been shortly after or years after.
I'll be amazed if anybody knows what story I'm talking about since I remember so few details. But the people on SOL are amazing anyway, so I'm hoping.
Thanks in Advance.

Replies: Keet The Outsider bk69

Keet 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Maybe this one: A Collection of Political Humor
Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?

ETA: published in 1972
ETA2: For decoration: 1960 anti-Nixon poster

Replies: Dinsdale

Dinsdale 🚫

@Keet

How about this cartoon?
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1972/07/11

The Outsider 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

"The Two Georges" by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove, published in 1995.

Nixon is "The Steamer King" and is murdered early on. (Cars are steam-powered...) He is only a peripheral character in the story. The story takes place in a 20th Century British North America which remained British (no American Revolution) and is "the North American Union."

Available on Amazon, and might be in your local library. Not available in an ebook from what I can tell.

The Two Georges at Amazon.

Replies: Mushroom PotomacBob

Mushroom 🚫

@The Outsider

"The Two Georges" by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove, published in 1995.

Yu beat me to it, I was going to say that as well. And an excellent book.

In short, it is a story where after George Washington went to England to plead the Colonists case to King George III, there was reconciliation with the crown. The Colonies remained a loyal part of the UK, and had a great deal of autonomy (not unlike Canada).

The title refers to a fictional painting by Thomas Gainsborough ("The Blue Boy"), which depicted the meeting of George Washington in his tough Colonial garb, meeting the regal King George III. It becomes a symbol of the new unity, and it is stolen after "The Steamer King" is murdered as part of a distraction.

Many people make appearances as cameos, including JFK and Marin Luther King. A great and very enjoyable read.

PotomacBob 🚫

@The Outsider

The Outsider
10/8/2020, 5:06:15 PM
Updated: 10/9/2020, 7:37:20 AM

@PotomacBob

"The Two Georges" by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove, published in 1995.

I believe "The Two Georges" is the story I recall. Thanks to The Outsider and Mushroom for story details. Both of them have amazing memories to come up with the story based on the tiny amount I could remember.
I'll pursue getting a copy.
Thanks to all.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@PotomacBob

I believe "The Two Georges" is the story I recall. Thanks to The Outsider and Mushroom for story details. Both of them have amazing memories to come up with the story based on the tiny amount I could remember.

Well, at least for me this is a very memorable book.

First, it is written by Harry Turtledove, the absolute master of Alternate History.
Second, it is also written by Richard Dreyfus. Yes, the actor.
Third, the book was full of strange variants of real life people. Like Dr. King being the effective leader of North America, and JFK essentially being the villain.

I love Turtledove's writings however, and have read most of his works multiple times.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Mushroom

I bought, from Amazon, a used copy of "The Two Georges." It arrived today and I can confirm that is the story I sought.
thanks to all.

Mushroom
10/13/2020, 3:08:15 PM

@PotomacBob

I believe "The Two Georges" is the story I recall. Thanks to The Outsider and Mushroom for story details. Both of them have amazing memories to come up with the story based on the tiny amount I could remember.

Well, at least for me this is a very memorable book.

First, it is written by Harry Turtledove, the absolute master of Alternate History.
Second, it is also written by Richard Dreyfus. Yes, the actor.
Third, the book was full of strange variants of real life people. Like Dr. King being the effective leader of North America, and JFK essentially being the villain.

I love Turtledove's writings however, and have read most of his works multiple times.

bk69 🚫

@PotomacBob

Probably from Alternate Presidents or Alternate Kennedeys, two of the short story anthologies Mike Resnick edited for Tor. There were a few other anthologies in the series (the 'Alternate Outlaws' had one interesting story involving the undisputed king of organized crime, J Edgar Hoover, and the organization dedicated to bringing him down - the FBI - run by such notables as Al Capone and Meyer Lansky) but it'd be a stretch to get Nixon in any of them other than those first two. Maybe if someone's detached enough from reality, "Alternate Tyrants"?

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@bk69

Probably from Alternate Presidents or Alternate Kennedeys, two of the short story anthologies Mike Resnick edited for Tor.

I loved all of those.

Probably the most surrealistic was "Alternate Gerrolds", which did the same thing, but about frequent collaborator David Gerrold. Who among other things wrote "The Trouble With Tibbles", "The Martian Child", and was the real creator of both "Land of the Lost" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Replies: Radagast

Radagast 🚫

@Mushroom

Was that anything like the Many Lives of Joe Buckley? IIRC Joe was a critic on the Baen forum. It became a tradition for Baen authors to kill him in their books in increasingly gruesome ways.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Radagast

I remember Spider Robinson killing off some critic via the critic's own prejudices. He had the guy skewer himself walking onto a sword.

Keet 🚫

Just for the record: 1995 is not "before the internet".
The first commercial public internet was established in 1990 (NSFNET/Tim Berners-Lee's 'WorldWideWeb') after it's predecessor ARPANET.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Keet

Just for the record: 1995 is not "before the internet".

My mistake. When I wrote the original query, I thought the story was likely from the 1970s, but thought stating that in the query might have been too limiting. Not that I knew when the Internet started, so I might have made the same mistake even if I had known it was from 1995.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@PotomacBob

My mistake. When I wrote the original query, I thought the story was likely from the 1970s, but thought stating that in the query might have been too limiting. Not that I knew when the Internet started, so I might have made the same mistake even if I had known it was from 1995.

I'm sorry if my post sounded like criticism, it was not meant that way. I noted it because that specific piece of data made me suggest the 1972 publication, which is obviously from before the internet. It seemed to fit most of your other hints, like the 'collection part. I didn't know of "The Two Georges" so I couldn't suggest that :)

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Forum: Lost Stories

Nixon was a used car salesman

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