ETA: oops, I’m saying nominative case throughout the above post when I mean objective case
‘Recall’ is the main verb of the independent clause. Being the object of ‘recall’ overrides being the subject of ‘tell’.
To correct myself though: ‘that’ is the object of ‘tell’ and ‘me’ is an indirect object.
“I don’t recall him with a book” is equally simple. You’re remembering the man with or without certain features.
OP, “him” is correct. Anyone saying otherwise is old and will be dead soon. Their vote can be discarded.
That’s not how it works. If the entire dependent clause is the object of the verb, that doesn’t affect the case of the subject within the dependent clause. A subject of a dependent clause remains in the subjective case, regardless of the role that the entire dependent clause plays as a whole with respect to the independent clause.
I’ve been an English teacher for several decades and I teach English use, which we often call “rules” although they are not. One of the most important points about English that I teach my students is that there is no official grammar in English, “correctness” is simply based upon usage. There is no RAE, as there is in Spanish, that watches over the language for contamination.
And even languages that do have official academies are still determined by usage. When the academy disagrees with the actual usage, it is the academy which is wrong (or at least, describing the rules for a different language than the one the people actually speak).
He/him is not actually the subject of a dependent clause. There is no finite verb there.
On further reflection, I think ‘telling’ is a gerund, not a verb, as other people have alreadysaid. Apparently gerunds are modified by adverbs rather than adjectives. But it is still a bit confusing.
a) Swimming the Channel was a feat of endurance.
b) His swimming of the Channel was completed in record time.
c) *Him swimming of the Channel was completed in record time.
d) *Him swimming the Channel was completed in record time
e) *His swimming the Channel was completed in record time
f) His swimming the Channel was a feat of endurance.
g) Him swimming the Channel was a feat of endurance.
I don’t really understand why some of these are OK, and some are not.
I was addressing your own analysis. My answer to the OP’s question remains unchanged.
It’s a noun so it must be modified by an adjective. It’s only confusing if you think of it as a verb.
If it must be modified by an adjective then it cannot be modified by ‘ever’, which is an adverb. In your analysis, what does ‘ever’ modify?