Like Barrett's story, Gjertrud Schnackenberg's poem “Darwin in 1881,” which can be found in her Supernatural Love: Poems 1976-1992 (2000), examines the mind of a great scientist as his life draws to a close. Also like the story, the poem interweaves past and present as Darwin looks back on his life. He does not view it with any sense of accomplishment.

Barrett's novel Voyage of the Narwhal (1998) begins in May 1855, when the Narwhal sails from Philadelphia to the Arctic in search of a long-lost expedition. On board is the naturalist Erasmus Darwin Wells, who sees this voyage as a chance to make his reputation. The voyage does not go according to plan, and by September, the ship is ice-locked and will have to see out the winter in the Arctic. As the weather worsens, morale sinks. The well-researched story has many twists...