Where in the world is Samuel Clemens?

February 7, 2006 8:14 PM

Where on Earth was Samuel L. Clemens at midnight on December 31st, 1899? Read the

"Does anyone know where Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was when the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1899?"

My American History professor asked us this riddle today in class. He didn't provide any additional information. No one knew, and he refused to tell us. My first instinct that he was dead, so where ever he is presently buried, but alas no, he died in 1910. Then I thought it could be a vague allusion to some of his work, but I asked and, no he is asking the man's actual physical location.

I've been in the library all afternoon reading Twain biographies, but no luck. So has any one ever heard this riddle, or failing that, does anyone know where I could find out? Was a Twain diary ever published?

posted by FearAndLoathingInLJ to Grab Bag (24 answers total)

It's nothing about his biography. It's one of those mental puzzles -- the answer is deducible from the qeustion somehow, and it's probably something about the turn of the century.
posted by Miko at 8:26 PM on February 7, 2006

I wonder whether he was writing newspaper articles at the time? I've read some of his articles, and they often allude to current events. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some clever article about that new year's celebration - assuming he's talking about midnight after December 31, not midnight Dec 31 proper, which would be 24 hours before new year's.
posted by pocams at 8:28 PM on February 7, 2006

This page indicates he was part of some Watch Night Meeting to mark the roll over to 1900. But it's unclear whether he was physically at this meeting.
posted by frogan at 8:29 PM on February 7, 2006

try searching on new year's eve 1900 and mark twain.
posted by j at 8:29 PM on February 7, 2006

Perhaps it's "at home in bed" since that's the midnight before New Year's Eve?

If so, that's awfully lame.
posted by JMOZ at 8:30 PM on February 7, 2006

His friend Tesla moved his lab to Colorado Springs in 1899. Maybe he was there?
posted by evariste at 8:31 PM on February 7, 2006

Your professor probably mistakenly believes that Clemens was on the ship the "Warrimoo," which famously jumped over the international date line at midnight on December 30, 1899, so that it skipped the entire day of the 31st, and went straight from the 30th to the first.

But Clemens wasn't actually on the ship at the time. He had been on the ship a few years earlier with his family while he wrote his book "Following the Equator."

Google to the rescue!
posted by JekPorkins at 8:32 PM on February 7, 2006

JMOZ might have it, if it's a jokey riddle like I think, and yes, it is lame. Not least because he might not have been in bed. That year was a pretty depressing one for him, and he was always a bit of a night owl anyway.

Because I thought my answer might have been too fast off the cuff, and because I actually know a lot about Mark Twain and have a shelf full of biographies of him, I can tell you twhere he actually was: London. His oldest daughter Susy had died not long before, and his youngest, Jean, was havin epilectic seizures. THe Clemenses found a doctor whose treatment they liked, and travelled with him to London, then to Sweden for a round of sauna-and-massage cures, then back to London, where they stayed over the course of that winter.
posted by Miko at 8:35 PM on February 7, 2006

My guess was also Colorado Springs, since Tesla's famous trick photo was taken on Dec. 31, and what I read suggested Clemens had visited the lab, but JekPorkins' idea is looking better.
posted by artifarce at 8:35 PM on February 7, 2006

He was in London.
posted by justkevin at 8:36 PM on February 7, 2006

Wasn't he in London?

I'm going by the obvious source - his own voluminous letters.
posted by vacapinta at 8:38 PM on February 7, 2006

He was also serving as an unofficial ambassador from the US, opposing American Imperialism and the war in the Phillippines.
posted by Miko at 8:44 PM on February 7, 2006

On post-non-preview, regardless of the answer to this silly question thanks for allowing me to discover so much Twain correspondence online - what a treasure.
posted by vacapinta at 8:46 PM on February 7, 2006

JedPorkins likely has it.
posted by Neiltupper at 8:55 PM on February 7, 2006

Technically, the clock never "strikes" midnight on a single date, since a clock that ticks once per second hand is always between 0 and 1 second slow. Thus, the clock struck midnight between December 31, 1899 and January 1, 1900, but it did not strike midnight on either of those dates.

But yeah, the answer is "in bed."
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:35 PM on February 7, 2006

What Saucy, Pokins and JMOZ said. Sounds like a riddle to me.
posted by acoutu at 11:38 PM on February 7, 2006

My thought was what JMOZ said.
posted by srah at 3:41 AM on February 8, 2006

Please let us know what your prof says when you reply; I confess to a deep curiosity for this kind of trivia.
posted by dunderhead at 5:54 AM on February 8, 2006

You could try calling or emailing the staff at the Mark Twain House in Hartford. .
posted by JanetLand at 6:01 AM on February 8, 2006

The 20th Century? You can be in a time period in the same way that you can be in a place. If the prof assumed what JekPorkins said then that could be a possible answer.
posted by JJ86 at 6:40 AM on February 8, 2006

"Does anyone know where Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was when the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1899?"

Yes, Samuel Clemens does
posted by poppo at 6:50 AM on February 8, 2006

I want to hear the answer, too.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:13 AM on February 8, 2006

As stated previously, "in bed."
posted by bjork24 at 8:30 AM on February 8, 2006

The 20th Century? You can be in a time period in the same way that you can be in a place. If the prof assumed what JekPorkins said then that could be a possible answer.
posted by JJ86 at 7:40 AM MST on February 8

Of course you mean the 19th century. Even if he did mean midnight on the 1st, and not midnight on the 31st. The 20th century did not begin until midnight, Jan 1st, 1901. (Remember this discussion during the last changeover?)
posted by attercoppe at 6:51 PM on February 8, 2006