Christopher Dewdney (The Author)
The author of this nonfiction work, Dewdney writes much of the book from his own perspective, especially the introduction and conclusion. The book is a composition of his thoughts, ideas, research, feelings, and speculations about the night, so it is inextricably linked to his mind. Dewdney also explicitly interjects himself into the text several times, a notable example being in the introduction ("First Night"), where he suddenly stops giving his presentation and talking about himself in the first person as he's writing the book.
Robert Frost
The title of this book comes from a Robert Frost poem called "Acquainted With the Night." This poem is influential for the narrator; the mastery and contemplation with which Frost describes the night are inspirational. Frost, although not a major character in this book other than for his title, still has undercurrents of influence: much of Dewdney's attitude toward the night seems to come from Frost's cool adulation.
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare is an author whose works come up repeatedly through the course of this book. He was also acquainted with the night, and he included much night imagery in many of his plays and sonnets, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream. Dewdney also includes references to his maxims as well as to possibly his best work, Hamlet.
Edwin Hubble
Hubble is a major character in the history of astronomy, as anyone with a little knowledge of the subject can tell you. He was the one who solved Olbers' Paradox, tracing the divergent movement of all celestial bodies back to one initial moment, realizing that science proves that the universe had a beginning. The Hubble telescope, a giant space telescope currently floating in orbit, is named after him.
Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers
Olbers was a German astronomer who became famous for the following paradox: why is the night dark when it should, according to scientific principles, be filled with the blazing light of countless stars? This paradox was not solved until the revelation of Edwin Hubble years later.
Sigmund Freud
Freud is considered to be perhaps one of history's most authoritative experts on the subject of dreams. His influential book On the Interpretation of Dreams has become one of the most famous psychological texts ever to be published, and no psychology class is complete without mention of his methods of psychoanalysis. He is an important character in this novel's chapter on dreams, and mentions of him pepper the rest of the sections as well.
