Tomorrow marks the 114th anniversary of Mark Twain‘s well-known, much-quoted, often-distorted observation: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
As is discussed in my 2006 book, The Year That Defined American Journalism, Twain's remark was prompted by an article published June 1, 1897, in the New York Herald.
The Herald, which then was regarded as one of the top daily newspapers in America, reported Twain, then 51, to be “grievously ill and possibly dying. Worse still, we are told that his brilliant intellect is shattered and that he is sorely in need of money.”
Twain was in London then, preparing to cover Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee for William Randolph Hearst's flamboyant New York Journal. That association allowed the Journal to puncture the Herald's account as false.
In an article published June 2, 1897, beneath the headline, “Mark Twain Amused,” the Journal skewered the Herald's story and offered Twain's timeless denial: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
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