That Stormy Night by Jeff Deischer
A golden man falls from the sky. He claims the night is his mother and the sea his father. And he has knowledge of the past and future not possessed by ordinary mortals. Later, upon meeting Doc Savage, the Golden Man says, by way of telling Doc he knows who he is,
"you were born on the tiny schooner Orion in the shallow cove at the north end of Andros Island" . . . Doc was floored, figuratively . . . by the fact that this golden man knew the exact place of his birth. It was astounding. Doc himself had known of no living man who had those facts. His five aides did not know. It was in no written record.
Later, the Golden Man reveals himself to be "Paul Hest . . .chief of intelligence for . . . an unnamed nation" which seems to be Great Britain*. The Golden Man was sent to prevent "another nation"--Germany--from framing his country for a U-boat attack, turning the U.S. against her nominal ally. This is as much as we are told about Doc's birth in the entire series, as it is related in The Golden Man (which occurred Autumn 1940). The "Andros Island" mentioned by the Golden Man is not specified whether it is the one in the Caribbean Sea or the one in the Mediterranean Sea, but given Doc's father's interest in Central America--he made at least two trips there around 1910, according to The Man of Bronze and They Died Twice--the island is likely located in the Caribbean Sea. The question remains, how did Hest come by this information?
What Doc believes about the availability of the information about his birth cannot literally be true. Hest got it, somehow. Because Doc is a thorough individual, we can infer that Doc knows for fact that there are no eyewitnesses to his birth still alive, and that there are no official records pertaining to his birth in existence. This leaves us with three indirect methods of getting this information: an eyewitness told someone of Doc's birth, and that confidante was contacted; an eyewitness left an unofficial written account of Doc's birth, such as a diary, and this was discovered by someone and it came into Hest's hands; or a confidante of an eyewitness left an unofficial written account of Doc's birth, and it came into Hest's hands. The Golden Man later explains:
Paul Hest smiled faintly. "The intelligence departments of most leading nations know things that apparently no one could know. I happen to have a prodigious memory--or did I say that? Anyhow, that accounts for me knowing your men, knowing you, knowing about your friend who was to be killed in Vienna"
While it may be easy enough to believe that British Intelligence found a source of information about Doc, it is not so easy to understand why this particular man, the head of British Intelligence, would have information about Doc's birth. In fact, Doc Savage has an association with British Intelligence predating his own career which began with The Man of Bronze (Autumn 1931). He possesses a commission with Scotland Yard, gained while working with the British Secret Service, "some years" prior to The Thousand-headed Man (Summer 1933). The Sea Magician (Autumn 1933) states Doc has "an honorary inspector's commission with Scotland Yard". It is likely that he was thoroughly investigated before being given this commission.
But it is equally likely Doc was investigated because of his growing disreputation over the years. He is framed, on average, once a year, for some horrendous crime, not against merely an individual, but against entire nations. Doc Savage is impersonated half dozen times over a ten year period. Probably the intelligence service of every civilized nation on earth has a thick file on Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.
The story of Clark Savage, Jr., better known to the world as Doc Savage, begins at the turn of the twentieth century. The Golden Man does not reveal what year Doc was born in, but there are clues throughout the novels. Cargo Unknown states that Doc was born about "twenty years" prior to The Man of Bronze, suggesting a date around 1911. But, according to They Died Twice (Summer 1941), young Clark "is already known as Doc Savage" by 1911, and therefore was at least a few years old. Doc was probably born between 1906 and 1910, then. This range is confirmed by a statement in Devil on the Moon (Winter 1936), which reveals that Doc is "young". He is probably no older at that time than half the life expectancy for his generation, then, or thirty-two years old, placing his birthyear no earlier than 1904.
At the beginning of Peril in the North (Spring 1941), Doc's friends attempt to throw him a birthday party. It is near midnight, and it is not explained why they wait until this hour to do so. According to my chronology of the series, this puts Doc's birthday in very late May (it is chilly, but the "midnight sun" is visible near Greenland, placing this adventure between May 25 and July 25).
Although Doc apparently forgets that it is his birthday, he may, subconsciously, be feeling sentimental over the fact. Later in the adventure, one of Doc's assistants, Monk Mayfair, makes a speech about being willing to sacrifice his life in order to save others that brings tears to Doc's eyes, the only such time recorded in the entire series, which covers nearly two decades. Doc's nationality is never referred to in the series, so we may assume he is American by birth. Since he was born abroad, outside United States borders, at least one of his parents must have had American citizenship prior to his birth.
The only relatives of Doc's mentioned in the series, other than his parents, are his "uncle" Alex Savage and "cousin" Patricia, Alex's daughter, though Doc's exact relationship to them is a point of contention, as Pat's relation to Doc fluctuates throughout the series. They are probably close cousins--Doc's father and Alex being first cousins--as later accounts suggest. Alex Savage settled in western Canada circa 1890, as related in Brand of the Werewolf (Autumn 1932), and one of Pat's grandfathers travelled the "northwest" (whether this is the American northwest or the continental northwest is unclear) and "fought Indians", according to I Died Yesterday (Spring 1947).
However, the original story idea for Brand of the Werewolf states that Alex and Pat live in the Pacific Northwest, in the U. S. This at least suggests that the Savage family is American. At the time of Doc's birth, Doc's father, Clark Savage, Sr., is a wealthy man: "He had amassed a tremendous fortune", "early in life", according to The Man of Bronze. Of Doc's mother, nothing is known, not even her name. But not long after Doc's birth, something happens. Something awful. The Man Who Was Scared (Summer 1943) states:
Doc's father, about the time Doc was born, evidently received some sort of shock which completely warped his outlook--made him devote the rest of his days to raising a son who would follow the career of righting wrongs and punishing criminals who seemed to be outside the law. Doc never knew what happened to his father to give him such an idea.
But this is not entirely true. Doc himself writes in a public statement, in No Light to Die By (Winter 1946):
My father, victimized by criminals, imagined he could turn me into a sort of modern Galahad who would sally out against all wrongdoers who were outside the law, and who would aid the oppressed. My father, before his death, outlined a stringent course of training in which I was placed in the hands of a series of scientists, criminologists, physical culture experts, psychiatrists--I won't bore you with an endless list of these experts, but they had me in their hands from the time I was fourteen months old until I was twenty years old--so that I might be fitted for this career of righting wrongs and punishing evildoers.
That Doc's father did not push him to be a lawyer (criminal prosecutor) or a policeman but rather the ultimate Nemesis of evil, as Doc is often referred to as throughout the series, suggests that the circumstances of this crime were somewhat fantastic, like Doc's own adventures. Cargo Unknown (Summer 1944) adds,
Doc had never known his mother; she had died when he was less than a year old. The elder Savage had died about the time Doc's unusual training had been finished . . .
just prior to The Man of Bronze (Autumn 1931). The text does not state that Doc's mother died in childbirth, and in fact implies that she did not, so we may take it that she did not. So: Doc's mother dies when he is less than a year old. Doc's father victimized is by criminals. Young Doc's training begins when he is fourteen months old. Could the thing that warped Doc's father be the murder of his wife by men beyond the reach of the law?
* Note: I realize this identification is controversial, and fortunately not central to the deduction of Doc's birthday. Briefly, my reason for making this identification is that Great Britain, who, at first glance appears to be behind the sub attacks, had more to lose by the ruse than Germany.