“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
As commonly credited to Mark Twain
- Credited to
- Mark Twain
- Actually said by
- Mark Twain
- Earliest known
- 1897
Findings
I heard this “quote” relayed by Northwestern professor Gary Morson. This one, honestly, I give a pass, because what Twain actually said is very close, and he really was the subject of a death hoax. It’s fine, but it is still being logged for posterity.
Newspapers had reported him ill or dead; it seems they had confused him with his cousin, James Ross Clemens, who was seriously ill in London at the time.
The original
“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”