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I have a newspaper report of a death in 1917. The person who died in the article did not die however his wife did. I am writing up a story about the article and I want to title it "The Reports Of My Death..." Not Just For the Famous. The partial quote "The reports of my death..." has been attributed to Mark Twain. In doing some digging to find the origin of the original quote I discovered that he is often misquoted.
http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/06/reports-of-my-death-are-greatly.html
Mark Twain made two references to the report of his death. One was is a letter where he wrote "The report of my death was an exaggeration." The second was a reporter quoting Twain as saying "...the report of my death has been grossly exaggerated."
My title is not an exact quote of Twains. However it is a common variation. I would like to footnote/cite the quote in my title and am thinking of something like.
A common variation of the original Mark Twain quote, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." Mark Twain to Frank Marshall White, letter, 31 May 1897; This Day in Quotes (http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/06/reports-of-my-death-are-greatly.html : accessed 28 September 2016).
Thank you for any thoughts,
Ann Gilchrest
Works just fine, Ann--perhaps
Works just fine, Ann--perhaps with a couple of wee tweaks:
1. You need a comma or a semicolon where you have the period
2. You introductory words might be a bit clearer. Perhaps:
Adapted from the original Mark Twain quote, "The report of my death was an exaggeration"; Mark Twain to Frank Marshall White, letter, 31 May 1897; This Day in Quotes (http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/06/reports-of-my-death-are-greatly.html : accessed 28 September 2016).
Does this reflect what you are trying to say?
Yes it does. But another
Yes it does. But another question is raised. In the original letter Twain writes, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." With the period. I have always wondered about including periods in quotes especially when the period is part of the original quote.
Ann
Ann, how to punctuate quotes
Ann, how to punctuate quotes is one of those issues for which we need to go back to Chicago Manual of Style. In the current edition (16th) 13.7 and 13.8 cover "Permissible Changes to Quotation." That section begins with the statement: Athough in a direct quotation the wording should be reproduced exactly, the following changes are generally permissible to make a passage fit into the syntax and typography of the surrounding text."
The main issue, when weaving quotations into a sentence of our own is syntax--the grammatical sensibility of what we are trying to say so that the new text we are creating is not confusing.
Specific to your question, under CMOS 13.7, bullet 3 states: "A final period may be omitted or changed to a comma as required, and punctuation may be omitted where ellipsis points are used."