50s short story about a council of representatives from different time periods

Question

I'm looking for the name of Sci-Fi short story about a council of representatives from each time period who come together and meet. One of these council members is always present but only observes and never speaks. At the end of the story he is revealed to be the last human on Earth. I think it was written in the 50s.

Answer 1

I'm looking for the name of Sci-Fi short story

"The Inn Outside the World", a 1945 short story by Edmond Hamilton, also my unaccepted answer to the old question Pub or tavern reached from many time periods; first published in Weird Tales, July 1945, available at the Internet Archive. Any of these covers look familiar?

about a council of representatives from each time period who come together and meet.

The old man talked rapidly. "This world, and the way into it, have been known for thousands of years. A scientist of ancient Atlantis found the way first. He passed the secret down to a chosen few of each generation."

"You mean"—Merrill struggled to comprehend—"you mean that in every stage of the world's history, there have been a few people who knew about this?"

And he made a wild gesture toward the unearthly landscape of solemn green mists that surrounded them.

Guinard's gray head bobbed. "Yes. A few of the greatest men in each age have been admitted into the secret and have been bequeathed the jeweled Signs which are the key to entrance here. I don't claim to be worthy of belonging to the world's greatest—but they thought me so and admitted me to their brotherhood."

He went on: "And all the members of our secret brotherhood, the greatest men of every age of Earth in past and future, come here and gather at our meeting-place here."

One of these council members is always present but only observes and never speaks.

A tall Roman in bronze sat beside a man in super-modern zipper garments, a grave, bearded man in Elizabethan ruff and hose beside a withered, ancient Chinese, a merry fellow in the gaudy clothes of 16th Century France beside a stout, sober man in the drab brown of an American Colonial. At the far end of the table, silent and brooding, sat a man wrapped in dark robe and cowl-like hood, a man with a pale, young-old face.

[. . . .]

Merrill gestured past the excitedly clamoring group toward the cowled man who sat strangely silent and unmoved at the end of the table.

"Who's that?" he asked the Egyptian.

Ikhnaton shrugged. "That's Su Suum, who never talks about himself. We know only that he comes from some far future time, farther even than Zyskyn's age. He comes often, but just sits and listens."

At the end of the story he is revealed to be the last human on Earth.

"Will you listen to me, brothers?"

It was the man at the farthest end of the long table who was speaking. The cowled figure of Su Suum, always before silent.

Zyskyn, Caesar, Franklin—all in the room were stricken to silence by the unexpected voice. They stared wonderingly at Su Suum.

"You have often wondered about me," Su Suum said quietly. "I told you that I came from Earth's far future, but I did not tell you more than that. I preferred to listen. But now, I think, I must speak.

"I come from a time far in Earth's future, indeed. By your reckoning, it would be the 14,000th Century."

"That far?" whispered Zyskyn, astounded. "But—"

Su Suum, his strange young-old face quiet and passionless, continued. "As to who I am—I am the last."

A terrible realization came to Merrill, of the meaning of those quiet words. "You mean—?" Socrates was murmuring astoundedly.

"Yes," said Su Suum. "I mean that I am the last man of all men. The final survivor of the race to whose past you all belong."