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Below are the main AP stories about MT's final illness and death. In most cases I've put them together from several papers; as is still the case today, local editors regularly cut and rephrased different parts of a story for their own paper. No one text could represent the way all Americans read about MT's passing. The versions below, however, are meant to be representative. On the day of his death the AP also sent out (for use as a sidebar) a sampling of some of MT's best-known or most characteristic aphorisms. Many papers printed the sayings, usually in a box that ran beside the story of his death. The dramatic way The Denver Post chose to display the one-liners is shown above. The AP also prepared a 1200-word biography of Clemens' life and career as MT; although factually unreliable, it is a good guide to the way his times had come to see the shape, and thus the American meaning, of his story.
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