 During the period in which Gaddis was writing the novel, he traveled to Mexico, Central America, and Europe.While in Spain in 1948, Gaddis read James Frazer's "The Golden Bough".Gaddis found the title for his novel in "The Golden Bough", as Frazer noted that Goethe's plot for "Faust" was derived from the Clementine "Recognitions", a third-century theological tract (See Clementine literature)