Jessamyn West? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Pablo Picasso? Edward Albee? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Eloquent fiction depicts a heightened form of reality and presents a deeper version of the truth. The U.S. writer Jessamyn West has received credit for the following remark:
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
This statement has also been credited to U.S. transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Would you please find a solid citation to resolve this discrepancy?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1957 Jessamyn West published the memoir “To See the Dream”. She discussed the headaches she experienced and the typical depiction of headaches in fiction. She concluded that the fictional portrayal provided insights. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures—so the headachey female of the novel may be a truer picture than I, still aching a little, can ever paint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson died in 1882. QI has found no substantive evidence that he employed this expression. Emerson received credit by 2006.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The artist Pablo Picasso delivered a thematically similar remark during an interview which was printed in 1923 within the New York City periodical “The Arts: An Illustrated Monthly”. Picasso’s original responses in Spanish were translated into English:2
We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.
A separate Quote Investigator article about the quotation immediately above is available at this link.
In 1957 Jessamyn West employed the quotation under examination as mentioned previously. Also, in 1957 “The Book of Unusual Quotations” compiled by Rudolf Flesch reprinted the remark with the correct ascription:3
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures. Jessamyn West
In 1966 “The New York Times” published a profile of the playwright Edward Albee who voiced a thematically related remark:4
“A play is fiction—and fiction is fact distorted into truth.” Edward Albee smiled his iced-acid public smile as he said it.
In 1970 Eugene E. Brussell published the “Dictionary of Quotable Definitions”. He rephrased West’s remark to fit the format of a definition:5
FICTION
(A form which) reveals truths that reality obscures. Jessamyn West
In 1973 “Reader’s Digest” magazine printed a miscellaneous collection of quotes under the title “Quotable Quotes” which included the following item:6
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
—Jessamyn West
In 1977 “The Quotable Woman: 1800-1975” compiled by Elaine Partnow included the following entry:7
Jessamyn West
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
Quoted in Reader’s Digest
April, 1973
In 1993 “20 Master Plots (and How to Build Them)” by Ronald B. Tobias included an instance without attribution:8
Fiction, whether it happens in Middle Earth or in a galaxy far, far away, is always about us. Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
In 2006 a columnist in McAllen, Texas attributed a slightly altered version of the quotation to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The word “truth” occurred instead of “truths”:9
The essay was a response to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s belief that fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. Emerson believed fiction brings out our deepest fears and most creative ideas. What once was a dream is today’s truth.
In 2008 a columnist in London attributed a slightly altered version of the quotation to Ralph Waldo Emerson:10
As Ralph Emerson said, fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
In conclusion, this quotation should be credited to Jessamyn West because it appeared in her 1957 memoir “To See the Dream”. The ascription to Ralph Waldo Emerson is unsupported. Pablo Picasso and Edward Albee made thematically related observations.
Image Notes: Illustration of a portal between fiction and reality from Firli S at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Sarah Darer whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1957 Copyright, To See the Dream by Jessamyn West, Part 1, Quote Page 39, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1923 May, The Arts: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Covering All Phases of Ancient and Modern Art, Volume 3, Number 5, Picasso Speaks: A Statement by the Artist (Note accompanying text: Picasso gave his interview to “The Arts” in Spanish, and subsequently authenticated the Spanish text which we herewith translate), Start Page 315, Quote Page 315, The Arts Publishing Corporation, New York. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1957, The Book of Unusual Quotations, Compiled by Rudolf Flesch, Topic: Truth and Fiction, Quote Page 297, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1966 September 18, The New York Times, Albee: ‘I’m Still in Process’ by Elenore Lester, Quote Page 1D, Column 1, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1970 Copyright, Dictionary of Quotable Definitions, Edited by Eugene E. Brussell, Entry: Fiction, Quote Page 199, Column 1, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1973 April, Reader’s Digest, Volume 102, Number 612, Quotable Quotes, Quote Page 113, The Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1977, The Quotable Woman: 1800-1975, Compiled and edited by Elaine Partnow, Entry: Jessamyn West, Quote Page 311, Column 2, Corwin Books, Los Angeles, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1993 Copyright, 20 Master Plots (and How to Build Them) by Ronald B. Tobias, Chapter 17: Master Plot #11: Metamorphosis, Quote Page 146, Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2006 October 3, The Monitor, Dare to Dream by Victor Alvarez, Quote Page 1B, Column 1, McAllen, Texas. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 2008 February 5, Evening Standard, The whole truth about porkies on the page by Sebastian Shakespeare, Quote Page A13, Column 5, London, England. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎