<Li> For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga is an alternate history novel published in 1973 by the American business historian Robert Sobel . The novel depicts an alternative world where the American Revolution was unsuccessful . </Li> <Li> Cannibals And Missionaries by Mary McCarthy quotes on page 199 "No detail...was too small to be passed over ...' For want of a nail,' as the proverb said ." </Li> <Li> In the novel Rage, by Stephen King (using the pseudonym Richard Bachman), main character Charlie Decker references the proverb: "But you can't go back . For want of a shoe the horse was lost, and all that ." Stephen King's 1987 novel, The Tommyknockers also references the proverb in its first line: "For want of a nail the kingdom was lost--that's how the catechism goes when you boil it down ." </Li> <Li> JLA: The Nail is a three - issue comic book limited series published by DC Comics in 1998 about a world where the baby Kal - El was never found by Ma and Pa Kent because a nail punctured their truck tire on the day when they would have found his ship; thus the child does not grow up to become Superman . This story uses the English ("Knight") variation of the rhyme as a theme . </Li>

For want of a nail the shoe was lost