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Dorling Kindersley released the Lost Encyclopedia on October 18, 2010. The book features a foreword by creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and promotional material bills it as an official companion to the series. According to author Tara Bennett, Lost writer Gregg Nations confirmed its contents' accuracy. The book is 400 pages in length and contains over 1000 images.

Content[]

TerryBennett

Tara Bennett and Paul Terry

The book contains no new storyline information but clarifies previous gray areas. Bennett said many fans may be surprised by some of the clarifications enough to where they would deem them new information. The book is set up as an "in universe" book organized alphabetically and features only two, likely accidental, examples of behind the scenes information. It does, however, feature many never-before-seen photographs, maps and other items and locations used during the filming process.

Promotional samples[]

Errors[]

According to author Tara Bennett, she and co-author Paul Terry ran all of the book's contents by Lost writer Gregg Nations. When questions remained, said Bennett, they consulted Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse themselves. Despite this, the book contains many errors.

In addition to some inconsistencies with what was seen on-screen, numerous copyediting errors appear throughout the body of the book. Beyond having many grammatical and spelling errors, there are several sections of the book where it appears that an early draft of a statement co-exists side by side with the final draft of the same statement.

Factual inaccuracies[]

Article
Lost Encyclopedia content
Lost content
Page, Section
Aaron Littleton Kate lost sight of Aaron in a supermarket "soon after" she revealed the truth about him to Cassidy. Kate lost sight of Aaron in a supermarket almost three years after her conversation with Cassidy. ("Whatever Happened, Happened") 11, Life as Aaron Austen
15 A white rabbit with the number "15" painted on it appeared in the Swan Orientation Film. No rabbits appeared in that film. One did in the Orchid Orientation video. ("Orientation")  ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 3") 15
Alexandra Rousseau Alex had Kate and Sawyer help her free Karl after releasing them from their cages. Kate climbed out of her cage and opened Sawyer's. They encountered Alex in the jungle, where she helped them escape from Danny Pickett. ("I Do")  ("Not in Portland") 21, Young Love
Arrow A box in the station contained a U.S. Army knife. The station contained no knife. Ana took the knife from an Other's body. ("The Other 48 Days") 34, Inside the Arrow
Asthma Inhaler Shannon dropped and lost her inhaler aboard Flight 815 during turbulence. Shannon used her inhaler for several days on the island. On day 9, her inhaler ran out, and the refills Boone had packed in his own luggage were never found. ("Confidence Man") Years later, Jack discovered the discarded inhaler when he stepped on it at the caves. ("Lighthouse") 37, Asthma Inhaler
Black Rock In 1977, Sawyer told Horace his expedition was searching for the ship's wreck. He said this in 1974, when they first showed up on the island via time-travel flash and claimed to have survived a shipwreck. ("LaFleur") 55, Connections
Boone Carlyle Boone worked for a subsidiary of his mother's clothing company that specialized in weddings. Boone worked for a subsidiary of his mother's wedding company that specialized in clothing. 58, The Shannon trap
Bram Miles asked him for $6.4 million. Miles asked him for $3.2 million. ("Some Like It Hoth") 60, Winning Side
Caves Throwing the Man in Black into the Source "destroyed the Man in Black's mortal body". This appears to be a mis-statement, as the same sentence correctly concludes "which Jacob then carried back to the caves". ("Across the Sea") 65, Mother's Abode
Danielle showed up at the caves to warn the survivors of the impending Others attack. Danielle showed up at the beach camp. ("Exodus, Part 1") 65, Oceanic Survivors
Charlotte Lewis Charlotte's father eventually escaped the Island and had two more daughters with Jeanette. While it is true Charlotte had two younger sisters, she told Daniel after she left the Island "I never saw my dad again." ("This Place Is Death") 80, Always Curious
Charlotte bested Juliet in their fight at the Tempest station. Juliet managed to gain the upper hand and hold Charlotte at gunpoint, forcing Charlotte to surrender and explain her and Daniel's actions. ("The Other Woman") 81, Full Circle
Claire Littleton In her nightmare, Claire found a plastic baby covered in blood in the crib, one that "mirrors" the substitute baby she would later make. There was no plastic baby in the nightmare, just blankets and a pool of blood. Though a photo is provided, this scene must have been cut before the episode aired. ("Raised by Another") 88, Dark Nightmare
Daniel Eko bathed his bloody hands in holy water after killing Emeka and his men. Eko did bathe his hands in holy water, but before killing Emeka and they were not bloody. 91, Daniel
Danny Pickett Tom felled Michael with a slingshot. Tom used a pair of bolas to trip Michael. 100, Pickett Undercover
Dave Dave produced the keys from Brook's office. Hugo produced the keys from his pocket. 101, Dave
DHARMA Initiative Fern assisted the doctor who was treating Amy during her early labor. Although both characters were portrayed by the same extra, the nurse that checking up on Amy was Alice, not Fern. 110, Fern
Kyker was a videographer assistant. Kyker was the director of the Arrow Orientation film. 110, Kyker
Dynamite Dr. Leslie Arzt helped extract six sticks of dynamite from the Black Rock and placed them into two separate bags held by Kate and Locke. Arzt waited outside the Black Rock with Hurley while Jack and Locke carried a case of dynamite out. The first stick Arzt took out of the case exploded blowing him up. Locke then extracted the dynamite that was put into the backpacks. ("Exodus, Part 2") 116, Dynamite
The Elizabeth Kelvin moored the boat in a cove. It remained there until the Man in Black sent Kate and Sawyer to it. Between these two events, Desmond took the boat and sailed from the island, returned and gave the boat to Sayid for a mission. Sayid, Jin and Sun sailed to the decoy village and lost the ship to the Others. ("Three Minutes")  ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")  ("The Glass Ballerina") 119, The Elizabeth
Elsa A bracelet worn by Naomi Dorrit served to remind Sayid of the bracelet worn by Elsa. Naomi died in December 2004 on the island; Sayid would not meet Elsa until after he left the island. ("The Economist") 126, Elsa
Jacob Mother murdered Claudia with her own bare hands. Mother murdered Claudia with a rock. ("Across the Sea") The entries for Claudia and Mother describe this event accurately. 179, The Beginning
Jason Jason and Kate didn't rob the bank for the money, but instead for access to a safety deposit box containing a toy plane once owned by Tom Brennan. Jason robbed the bank for the money. He didn't know Kate was secretly aiming for the safety deposit box until she shot him in his legs. 183, Jason
Jason was part of a gang called "Six Foot Five" that knocked over banks. Six Foot Five was the credit name or alias for Mike, one of the robber, and no actual name was given for the gang in both the episode and the original script.
Mother Mother used the cover of night to kill Claudia's people while they slept. She killed them in daylight, making her success all the more surprising. (Across the Sea audio commentary) 253, Duty Calls
Nikki and Paulo After being killed off in the series' finale, Nikki declined an offer to return for the next season. It was the series wrap for her character, Corvette, not the finale of the series. 262, The Con
Penelope Widmore Hume Henrik and Mathias contacted Penny from the tracking station on September 22, 2004. Penny was contacted following the discharge on November 27, not the day of the Oceanic plane crash. ("Live Together, Die Alone") 287, Island Years
Robert "Fortunately", Robert's gun jammed when attempting to shoot Danielle, leaving her the opportunity to shoot him first. The gun didn't jam; Danielle had intentionally removed the firing pin so she could kill him. ("Solitary") 301, The Sickness
Roger Linus Roger died on Dec 23. Roger died on Dec 19, the date of the Purge. ("The Man Behind the Curtain") 301, Roger Linus
Rose Nadler (Henderson) During her time on the island, spent 3 years "In Dharma". Rose was never in DHARMA. Whilst on the island during '74-'77, she was never associated with the Initiative. ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2") 302, Facts and Figures
Bookshelf Desmond's favorite book. Desmond had not read the novel and intended the author's final work to be the last novel he read before he died. Charles Dickens was his favorite author. It also does not note that Desmond named the sailboat he hid on with Penny, after first leaving the Island, after the novel. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1") 306, Our Mutual Friend
James "Sawyer" Ford Lists Radzinsky under the Others subheading. Radzinsky was a member of the DHARMA Initiative. 310, Nickname Hall of Fame
Taweret Ben stabbed Jacob and threw him into the fire. Ben stabbed Jacob. The Man in Black kicked him into the fire. ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2") 351, Inside the Statue
Walt Lloyd Locke visited Walt in New York in 2005. It was 2007 when Locke left the island and visited Walt (and some of the Oceanic Six). ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham") 367, Visiting Hours
Desmond Hume flashsideways When Charlie mentioned the name Penny Widmore, a light turned on inside Desmond's consciousness and propelled him to find her. Charlie never mentioned the name Penny Widmore; he remembered her via memory flashes of Charlie's 'not Penny's boat' message in the Looking Glass, and via memory flashes of their relationship whilst in the MRI machine. ("Happily Ever After") 379, Desmond Hume


Image errors[]

Article
Error
Page
Ajira Flight 316 In the section of Destiny Calls, the screenshot of Jack and Nabil was not directly captured from the episode, instead it was taken from the fan site Lost-Media.com, as seen on the bottom left of the image, it said "CAPPED BY LOST MEDIA @ HTTP://LOST-MEDIA.COM". 13
Alcohol In the section on Jacob's wine bottle, the book offers the image of a different bottle entirely. 18
Depicts a bottle of Cabernet when describing Kelvin's drinking red wine in "Live Together, Die Alone". Kelvin drank Merlot in that scene. 18
Asthma Inhaler While this is indeed a picture of an inhaler, it is not the one Boone gave Shannon on the plane (which was dark gray with a brown cap) or the one Jack found at the caves (which was light gray with black lettering on the front) 37
Elizabeth (sailboat) The image of the Elizabeth's name shows both "Elizabeth" and "Mowee." The "Mowee" was the name of the actual sailboat used for the Elizabeth. The stern of the boat, as seen in "Live Together, Die Alone only shows Elizabeth, with Newport Beach on a second line. 119
Henry Gale The picture on the driver's license is clearly different from the one seen on the show. 144
Jacob's cave The scale pictured has both white and black rocks on both sides of the scale rather than a single rock on each side. 182
Journal The caption for the journal page "Fission Chain Reaction" incorrectly refers to "fusion" (joining) rather than "fission" (splitting). 192
Karl Martin The caption for the image of him and Alex mistakenly labels Alex as Danielle. 200
Lighthouse On the drawing art of the lighthouse dial, candidate number 22 is misspelled as "Moorehead". It should be Moorhead instead. 218
Taweret The image at the bottom right of the page clearly shows a foam safety block on the blade of the knife Ben is holding. 351


Erroneous conclusions[]

Article
Lost Encyclopedia interpretation
Counter-evidence
Page, Section
Dogen When Sayid told Dogen he planned to stay at the Temple at sundown, Dogen concluded that he had been wrong about Sayid, that he was a good man and that the two had now become allies against the Man in Black. Sayid attacked Dogen after announcing his decision without any pause whatsoever. ("Sundown") 113, Infiltration
Ilana Verdansky Ilana was the leader of the off-island Others. Ilana and Ben did not know each other. ("Namaste") Ben led Others on and off the island. ("The Lie") So though Ilana led a group, it was not the group we call the Others. 158, Connection
Isabella Alpert's meeting Isabella at the end of "Ab Aeterno" was "another spiritual communion" like his vision in the Black Rock. The appearance in the Black Rock was not Isabella. ("Ab Aeterno") It was the Man in Black impersonating her, as the Encyclopedia correctly points out in the article on him. 163, Isabella's Presence on the Island
The Island Separate groups that arrived on the Island left behind the Temple and Taweret. The Lighthouse entry states that the same inhabitants built the Temple and Taweret. 166, Man-made Structures
Kahana Minkowski communicated with those on the island by radio. "Radio" may be a generic term for all wireless communication, but the freighter featured both a radio and a set of satellite phones. Minkowski used the satellite phone, not the radio, to communicate with those on shore. 198, George Minkowski
Man in Black Man in Black appeared to Sun and Lapidus as Christian in the Barracks, while he simultaneously appeared as Locke on Hydra Island. There is no reason to think that these two events happened simultaneously. The Man in Black may have appeared in the Processing Center hours before appearing on Hydra Island. 236, As Christian Shephard
The Others Amelia was possibly killed when Keamy and the mercenaries stormed the island. Keamy's team engaged in no confrontations with the Others until "There's No Place Like Home, Part 2", in which no Others died. 279, Amelia
Sun-Hwa Kwon Sun helped "translate" Walt's wants and needs to Michael. Sun and Walt planted her garden together. Though the two spent a day together in "Walkabout", the show never again depicted them speaking to each other. They could not have conversed in English till "...In Translation", when Sun revealed she spoke it. After "...In Translation", Walt spent time near the raft, which Sun never approached. Walt may have helped plant Sun's garden, but the show never suggested this. 342, Walt Lloyd
Taweret Jacob's tapestry depicted Egyptians coming to the island. The people in the tapestry faced away from the island. It depicted the statue the Egyptians built as fully constructed. ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2") 351, Inside the Statue


Copyediting errors[]

Article
Error
Page, Section
Aaron Littleton Omits the word "as", rendering a sentence ungrammatical. 10, Newborn Life
15 States that Pierre Chang was holding a rabbit with a 15 painted on its side in the Swan Orientation film. It should say Orchid. 15
Ana Lucia Cortez Misspells Teresa Cortez's name as "Theresa". 24, To Serve and Protect
Black Rock Incorrectly names Tovard Hanso "Torvo Hanso". 55, The Fate of the Black Rock
Caesar "Caesar politely offered his condolence, which surprised Jack." - should be condolences. 64, Caesar
Caves Misspells Arzt as Artz. 65, Oceanic Survivors
Charles Widmore Dangling participle blames Widmore's banishing on Jacob's, rather than Widmore's selfishness. 68, Leading The Others
A paragraph discusses planting the flight 815 wreckage, then the next discusses Ben's talk with Sun and Locke, post-Oceanic Six. After that, it goes back to assembling the Kahana team. 70, Attempts To Return
Charlie Pace Drug addiction is spelt "drug addition." 73, Drug Addiction
Fail-safe is spelt "fail-save." 76, Fated Future
Danny Pickett "When Sawyer struggled, Pickett kicked him the stomach." - omits in. 100, Pickett Undercover
DHARMA Initiative This entry abandons the "in-universe" style of the rest of the book, talking about an "episode" of the show. 111, Candida
"Phil's discovery of the videotape that showed Sawyer and Kate taking a young Benjamin Linus, was the final straw." The comma should not be present. 111, Phil
Dogen Somewhere misspells Dogen's name as "Dogan". 113, Infiltration
Eko Improper capitalization in "smoke Monster". 120, The Smoke Monster's Judgment
The Hanso Foundation The first two quotes from the Hanso website contain a closing quotation mark but no opening quotation mark. 141, The Hanso Foundation
Horace Goodspeed A paragraph starts off with "During a botched attempt to learn more about Sayid, he eventually escaped the DHARMA compound." The pronoun "he" is ambiguous as to who it is referring to: Sayid or Horace. 145, Horace Unravels
Horace remained the leader of the DHARMA compound for more than the next 10 years. Should read "for more than 10 years" or "for the next 10 years." 145, Horace Unravels
The Hydra In late 2004, Sawyer and Kate were forced to break up rocks to help the Hydra island’s runaway. Omits the word "build." 156, The Runway
The Incident "Juliet regained consciousness at the bottom the shaft" omits the word "of". 161, That Day
Isabella "Tuberculosis" is improperly capitalized. 163, Isabella
The Island Tense changes within first paragraph. Describes the Man in Black's "singular" purpose in three parts. 164, The Island
Jack Shephard "Jack collaborated with Ana Lucia and later with which Rousseau and Juliet to plan counter-attacks." The "which" is not needed (possible remnant from earlier draft). 173, Leadership
Misspells fallibility "fallability". 174, James 'Sawyer' Ford
Jacob "Mother brutally murdered Claudia with her with own bare hands" has an extra "with" in the sentence. 179, The Beginning
Jeanette Lewis Says Charlotte left the island at age 3. Correctly stated as 6 elsewhere. 184, Jeanette Lewis
Juliet Burke "Juliet asked Ben if she could to return home." "To" and "return" are in reversed order. 196, Other Truths
Kahana Misspells "dinghy" as "dingy." 198, Captain Gault
Kate Austen Misspells "disappeared" as "disappeard". 204, Jacob's Touch
First two sentences appear to be a draft edit, followed by a much improved final draft. 207, Equine/Human Relationship
Misspells "consistent" as "consistant." 207, Equine/Human Relationship
Libby Smith "Message from Beyond" box is identical to the final sentence in the entry itself; inset box is likely the intended final placement. 217, Message from Beyond & A New Beginning?
John Locke Misspells "because" as "becasue." 222, caption of the third image.
Has a period instead of a space following a comma. 223, Charlie
Misspells foreshadowing "foreshaddowing". 225, Sayid Foreshaddowing
Magnus Hanso Final paragraph. A first draft sentence is followed by what appears to be the final edit. Also refers to the Blast Door Map as the "Blast Wall Map." 233, Magnus Hanso
The Man in Black The Man In Black told to Jacob.......(omit to) 235, The Island Comes First
States MIB stabbed Mother, then Jacob sees this, then MIB runs Mother through, then Jacob arrives. 235, The Monster Within
Says "the smoke monster than" rather than "then". 236, The French Science Team
There is an ungrammatical comma in "calm, manifestation". 236, Survivors of Flight 815
These boxes are nearly identical. 236, Jacob's spirit & 237, Haunting reminders
"Especially when Jack at his lowest" - omits was. 236, As Christian Shephard
In less specific incidences, but just a peculiar... Should read "just as peculiar." 237, Destined to Use Locke?
The word "of" omitted in "Benjamin Linus always felt he was living in the shadow Locke". 237, As John Locke
Compound sentence about Sayid and Sawyer working with the Man in Black repeated near verbatim as two separate sentences immediately afterward. 237, As John Locke
Jack dealt the final blow by kicking him over the edge, of the cliff (omit comma) 237, As John Locke
Refers to Locke as "the Locke". 237, Destined to Use Locke?
The Mesa Army Camp This text box abandons the "in-universe" style of the rest of the book, talking about the shooting location for the camp. 241, The Real Mesa
Miles Straume Says "Before the plan could take off"; clearly meant "plane". 250, Escape Plan
Mother Appositive "under the cover of dark" has comma at the end but not at the beginning. 253, Duty Calls
Nikki and Paulo Their were several disagreements about who or what was responsible for their "deaths." (Replace first their with there and put period at end.) 263, The Medusa Spider
Oceanic Flight 815 On Tracy's article, somewhere misspells "Steve Jekins" as "Scott Jekins". 270, Tracy
Eli is listed under "Immediate Casualties", despite the fact the entry itself explains how Eli survived the crash, and that he was taken by the Others. 270, Eli
The Others "Man's" is capitalized improperly. 278, The First Other
Polar bears The section starting with "This theory is strengthened by the fact that Charlotte Lewis found the skeleton of a polar bear" and ending with "presumably via the Orchid Station" appears to be an earlier draft of the section immediately following, which begins with "The Hydra orientation video confirmed that as fact and it was further supported when Charlotte Lewis found the skeleton of a polar bear" and ending with "via the Orchid station". 291, Polar DHARMA
Roger Linus Claims Roger was killed on December 23 instead of December 19 as correctly stated elsewhere in the book. 301, By The Numbers
Bookshelf Mispelling of Nikki - "Nikkie". 307, Jurassic Park
Sayid Jarrah Fifth dot-point. "Bobby trap" should read "booby trap." 317, A Man of Faith
The Sickness Touches upon the Sickness and several unrelated sicknesses - the Purge, the pregnancy problems, the quarantine - as though describing a single phenomenon. Elsewhere, the book correctly distinguishes between them. 326, The Sickness
Sun-Hwa Kwon Misspells Sun's fake name Dahlia Choi as "Dahlia Cho". 338, Facts & Figures
The Swan Final paragraph repeats information from the previous paragraph and should be omitted. 346, The Hatch
...where a long-term. two-person task was required...(change period to comma) 347, Swan Origins
The Tempest Much of the play’s subtext is about the difficulty of distinguishing between “men” from “monsters.” Should read ‘“distinguishing between “men” and “monsters” or “men” from “monsters”.’ 353, Shakespeare's Tempest
Tom Brennan Final sentence of the first paragraph and first sentence of the second paragraph are very similar. One of these sentences should be omitted. 357, The Reunion
Walt Lloyd Features an incomplete sentence: "To stop his father's initial escape attempt, he burned a raft Michael" 366, Family Ties
Wooden Shed A first draft of a sentence, "Desmond survived the colossal amounts of electromagnetism," appears before a final draft stating that Simmons died, leaving Desmond trapped and able to survive. 372, Wooden Shed
Index Daniel Faraday, Dave, Emily Linus, Kate's horse and Harper all include cross-references to the Man in Black "smoke monster manifestations" section on page 235. None of the characters are depicted or referenced on the page.


Transcription errors[]

Article
Episode
Transcribed dialogue
Episode dialogue
Ancient dagger "Sundown" "Put this right through his chest." - Man in Black "Put this through his chest." - Man in Black


Omissions[]

Article
Omission
Amy Goodspeed No entry.
Cassidy Phillips No entry.
Elizabeth (sailboat) Omits any reference to its use by the survivors prior to the Man in Black's plan to sail to Hydra Island.
Fern Omits any references as being one of the 1977 new DHARMA recruits, and eventually became one of the casualties of the purge.
Ji Yeon Kwon No entry.
Kwan-Hak Kim Omits first name. Entry titled "Mr. Kim", and his first name is not mentioned in the entry.
The Whispers No entry.
Martin Keamy No alphabetical entry but can be found in the Kahana entry under The Mercenary Team on page 199.
Warren Ford Omits first name. Entry titled "Mr. & Mrs. Ford", and his first name is not mentioned in the entry.
Warren Goldberg Omits surname. Entry titled "Warren", and his surname is not mentioned in the entry.
Woo-Jung Paik Omits first name. Entry titled "Mr. & Mrs. Paik", and his first name is not mentioned in the entry.


External links[]

References[]

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