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The-time-machine

Adam Bruce Clarke Wildman is the name by which the anonymous Time Traveller of H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine has been identified.

In Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Philip José Farmer identified the Time Traveller as Bruce Clarke Wildman, the eldest son of Sir Patrick Clarke Wildman and Mavice Blakeney; he explains the Time Traveller's apparent withdrawal from public life (with the exception of his particular circle of friends) as a reaction to a scandal surrounding his father.

In the comic-book adventures of the Rook, the Time Traveller is said to be named 'Adam Dane'. In his article The Great Danes, Wold Newton scholar Dennis Hager has worked to remove certain contradictions between the backgrounds of Bruce Clarke Wildman and Adam Dane; in short, he has provided arguments that the two men are one and the same person, Adam Bruce Clarke Wildman. In The Rook series, Adam and his wife Louise are the parents of Richard Dane, the father of Restin Dane, aka the Rook.

There are have been various pastiches or sequels to The Time Machine by various authors, with various different fates in store for Wells's hero. In some of these accounts, the Time Traveller is given a (different) name. For example, in the official sequel to the novel, Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships (which incorporates elements from many Wells stories), it is revealed that the Time Traveller's first name is "Moses", which he hates and refuses ever to use. "Moses" and "Adam", are, of course, both name of Biblical patriachs.

The Time Traveller is one of the characters to appear in "Allan and the Sundered Veil", the short-story that accompanies (and prequelises) the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.

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