John Updike? Henry Bech? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: People who love living in New York City often believe it is the epicenter of the world. Here are two versions of a statement displaying this attitude:
(1) The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.
(2) He had the true New Yorker’s secret belief that people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding.
This saying has been attributed to the prominent U.S. literary figure John Updike. Would you please help me to find a citation and to determine the correct phrasing?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1982 John Updike published the novel “Bech Is Back”. The main character was a writer named Henry Bech who was able to overcome writer’s block. In the following passage Updike presented the inner-thoughts of Bech. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The folks downtown looked merry to Bech, and the whole burg on a play scale; he had the true New Yorker’s secret belief that people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In November 1982 “Bech Is Back” was reviewed in “The New Yorker” magazine which reprinted the quotation. The phrasing differed, and only part of the statement was enclosed in quotation marks:2
Mr. Updike finds full scope for his gifts here: for sly and cheerfully malicious pensées on contemporary literary life; for busy observation of human behavior; and for remarks like this – that the secret belief of the true New Yorker is that “people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding.”
In January 1983 “Bech Is Back” was reviewed in ” Mademoiselle” magazine which also reprinted the quotation. The word “true” was replaced by “native”:3
Bech, long single and suffering from a case of writer’s block so acute that at one point he literally cannot write his own name, is lured to Ossining by a perky Episcopalian divorcée named Bea, who determines that her suburban love should be all he needs to get him to work again. To Ossining he brings “the native New Yorker’s secret belief that people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding,” but he gallantly tries to fit in with well-meaning neighbors . . .
In April 1983 “New York” magazine published a piece by John Heilpern which contained an instance of the quotation. The word “secretly” replaced the word “secret”, and only part of the statement was enclosed in quotation marks:4
John Updike’s hero in Bech Is Back says that the true New Yorker secretly believes that “people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding.”
In 2011 “The Little Red Book of New York Wisdom” edited by Gregg Stebben and Jason Katzman contained a pertinent entry. Updike received credit for a modified quotation which used “secretly” instead of “secret”:5
The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.
JOHN UPDIKE
In conclusion, John Updike should receive credit for the quotation about a New-York-centric viewpoint which he wrote in the 1982 novel “Bech Is Back”. The quotation reflected the stance of the main character Henry Bech which probably differed from Updike’s perspective. The popular phrasing has evolved over time.
Image Notes: Picture of the New York City skyline from Mark Boss at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to David Kalodner whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1982, Bech Is Back by John Updike, Chapter: Bech Wed, Quote Page 124, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1982 November 29, The New Yorker, Books: Briefly Noted (Review of John Updike’s “Bech Is Back”), Start Page 174, Quote Page 174, The New Yorker Magazine Inc., New York. (Online New Yorker archive of digital scans) ↩︎
- 1983 January, Mademoiselle, Volume 89, Number 1, Books by Jane Howard (Review of John Updike’s “Bech Is Back”), Start Page 26, Quote Page 30, Conde Nast Publications, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1983 April 4, New York, Volume 16, Number 14, New York / London: You and Us by John Heilpern, Start Page 39, Quote Page 39, Column 3, News Group Publications, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2011, The Little Red Book of New York Wisdom, Edited by Gregg Stebben and Jason Katzman, Introduction by Edward I. Koch, Chapter 6: Spoken Like a True New Yorker, Quote Page 174, Skyhorse Publishing, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎