“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: The report of my death was an exaggeration.
“James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration.”
From a note Twain wrote in London on May 31, 1897 to reporter Frank Marshall White: Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Lighting Out For the Territory : Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 134 http://books.google.com/books?id=ms3tce7BgJsC&lpg=PA134&vq=%22the%20report%20of%20my%20death%20was%20an%20exaggeration%22&pg=PA134. (The original note is the Papers of Mark Twain, Accession #6314, etc., Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va. http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu00005.xml, in Box 1.) <br class="br">White subsequently reported this in "Mark Twain Amused," New York Journal, 2 June 1897. White also recounts the incident in "Mark Twain as a Newspaper Reporter," The Outlook, Vol. 96, 24 December 1910 <br class="br">"Chapters from My Autobiography", The North American Review, 21 September 1906, p. 160. Mark Twain <br class="br">Misquote: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. <br class="br">This paraphrase or misquote may be more popular than the original. <br class="br">Variant: I said - 'Say the report is greatly exaggerated'.
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Mark Twain637
American author and humorist 1835–1910Related quotes
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