Some of the best discourses are in the form of skeletons.  By Charles Simeon, 1820.

Do ghosts speak in all-vowel words?  Who better to know than someone named Vowles!  The Question of Apparitions and Supernatural Voices Considered by William Vowles, 1814.

"The farther back you go in history, the more and more things fade into mythologies" (Osho).  To wit, The Gospel in the Stars, Or, Prímeval Astronomy by Joseph Augustus Seiss, 1882.

Here's the unglamorous explanation of the title Odd Moments; or Time Beguiled (1825).

The heir to castles in the air is one John Putkins, census-taker, as revealed in Putkins, Heir to Castles in the Air, A Comic Drama in One Act by William R. Emerson, 1871.

We love how the presenter of these stories by the ghost of O. Henry handles any skeptical readers.  We've reproduced about half of the preface, but it's all delightful.  From My Tussle With the Devil by O. Henry's Ghost [via a Ouija board], 1918.

If the animal is mythological, it stands to reason that the investigation would be mythological, too.  The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation by Robert Brown, 1881.   See A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound.

Long before radio stations offered the best of the sixties, seventies, and eighties, novels were doing it.  From The Veiled Hand by Frederick Wicks, 1893.

You've heard that animals and insects possess neither morality nor religion, yet here's The Butterfly's Gospel (Fredrika Bremer, 1865).

Here's one from the next edition of our dictionary of all-vowel words: Oo, a place name "never pronounced without awe and reverence," named after "a great god who dwelt under the sands of the desert"; "a wonderful place full of gold and jewels where demons dwelt," located several hundred miles down the southerly-flowing Darke River.  It is also known as "the city of unnumbered lights" and is capital of the Orbello kingdom.  Every portion of the city is subterranean except for its fortification and tower.  (The Mysterious City of Oo by Charles Lotin Hildreth, 1889.)

Here's an example of anticipating criticism and beating the reviewers with their own weapons.  From 1810.

You know how folks with birthdays near big holidays tend to get combined gifts?  Well, the year 1831 got a book as a combined gift for Christmas, New Year's, and its birthday.

Here's a rare word (only nine Google results) for heraldic symbols -- aristoglyphics.  From 1838.

Today is The Day of Small Things (Isabel Fry, 1901).

Q: Some Wordsworth Finds?

A: "Well, if you don't know, then who the hell does?  Why are you even telling us this now if you're not sure?  And when will you be sure?" —John O'Neill, Baby Girl Lauren, 2012