[Ads-l] Quote: Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated (Attributed to Mark Twain)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A famous anecdote about the humorist Mark Twain occurred when he was
an elderly gentleman. A prominent newspaper reported that Twain was
either gravely ill or dead. Journalists rushed to learn more about the
story, and they found that Twain was still alive and in good health.
When Twain was asked about the faulty report he responded with a quip.
Here are four versions:

(1) The report of my death was an exaggeration
(2) Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
(3) The report of my death has been grossly exaggerated
(4) The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated

There is now a Quote Investigator article which attempts to dispel the
uncertainty about Twain's remark:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/06/07/report-death/

While exploring this topic I encountered a disagreement between
important highly-reliable reference works about an entertaining
thematic precursor. On July 9, 1863 Mark Twain published a letter
discussing a man who had supposedly been "shot and very effectually
killed". Twain determined that the man was actually alive, and Twain
reported his dismissal: "there was no truth in the rumor".

References conflict about where this precursor appeared. Here are the
two suggested possibilities:

(1) San Francisco Daily Morning Call
(2) Territorial Enterprise

I contacted Twain quotation expert Barbara Schmidt who led me to
scholar Robert Hirst of the Mark Twain Project at Berkeley.

Conclusion: The letter from Mark Twain containing the precursor
appeared in the July 9, 1863 issue of the San Francisco Daily Morning
Call. There is no evidence that it appeared in the Territorial
Enterprise.

Garson

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