19th Century Americans | Final Jeopardy! | JEOPARDY!

Don't take your response to the grave. Final Jeopardy! is up next.

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#jeopardy

[bbarrett]

12345? That's amazing! I have the same combination on my luggage!

[cg]

My first thought was Thoreau--probably because Emerson and Thoreau are usually talked about in the same literary period

[wickedpawn]

Can't believe that I also went for Adams. Had no idea about the answer; went for a random author in the same period of time. Incredible.

[markheying]

My guess for this Final Jeopardy Clue would have been 1 of the following 3.
1: Nathaniel Hawthorne
2: Henry David Thoreau
3: Walt Whitman

[andrewklang]

My guess was Poe, but that sickly boi was long dead by this point.

They say that if all three contestants get a Final Jeopardy answer correct, the judges think it too easy, and if none get it, that it was too hard. I really don't know what was pointing to Hawthorne here. Scarlet Letter, sure, that's known, but nothing here pointed to that. And Pierce wasn't exactly one of the better-known Presidents.

[devansmith]

I new Franklin Pierce was from New Hampshire, so I got this one.

[mr.timetraveler]

Fun fact: $30, 000 is the highest score going into Final Jeopardy since game 2 of the Masters Finals when Victoria Groce scored $34, 000!

[Sheila]

Henry Adams?! It seems the most often quoted portion of his EDUCATION is his observations from the 1893 World's Fair.

[michaelgoff]

$12, 345? That's the stupidest wager I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of wager an idiot would have on his luggage.

[tshwgal]

Anybody else recognize Dana Schwartz? She does a history podcast called Noble Blood, and sometimes appears as a -- what's the correct term? Talking head? Expert commentator? Subject-matter expert? -- on History Channel programs .

[istvanfekete]

Zounds! A little over a year ago, in a Tournament of Champions (no less) all three contestants were stumped by a FJ clue about Longfellow. At that time, I mentioned the fact that Longfellow, Franklin Pierce and Hawthorne were in the same graduating class at Bowdoin College (1825) and that Hawthorne wrote a biography of Franklin Pierce. Sadly, that did not help these contestants, but it may very well help future contestants. This is not the last time we'll see this type of clue.

[alliesmom]

People saying David Erb looks like Clint Eastwood. I don’t see it. When I first saw him I thought “Will Ferrell”!!

[theweysermanisback]

We almost had an over $42, 000 payday, but it didn’t work out. Maybe, next time.

[judithmoore]

Doggone, I thought of Hawthorne and Thoreau, and went with Thoreau because I think Emerson and Thoreau were friends.

[jackgrimaldi]

Yay! I got it. It was just a guess based on Emerson. I just thought of the film Glory and both Matthew Broderick's character and his friend Thomas talking about Emerson and the other transcendentalists.

[KJ-oflf]

12345? Sounds like the combination on an idiots luggage!

[saulchapnick]

Not thrilled about runaway Final Jeopardies, but excellent clue.

[kali]

I knew who it was with the mention of Franklin Pierce. They were very close, and [censored] wrote a campaign biography, and later included a dedication to Pierce in one of his books against the will of his publisher.

[theresamariegoesplaces]

I knew the answer thanks to the new Alice Hoffman book, The Invisible Hour!

[tmhc_gtgc]

I guessed the answer because I remembered reading that he was a friend of Franklin Pierce