Peter De Vries

Peter De Vries – Life, Work, and Memorable Wit

A deep dive into the life, literary career, and timeless quotes of Peter De Vries (1910–1993), the American novelist and satirist celebrated for his razor-sharp wit, wordplay, and comedic vision.

Introduction

Peter De Vries (February 27, 1910 – September 28, 1993) was a master of satirical fiction, known particularly for his sharp wit, linguistic playfulness, and a style that merged comedy and undercurrents of grief and existential reflection. He gave voice to American suburban life, marriage, religious struggle, and loss through a distinct comedic lens. His novels, short stories, essays, and editorial contributions left a mark on mid-20th-century American letters even as he navigated tragedy and tension in his personal life.

Early Life and Family

Peter De Vries was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Dutch immigrant parents. Dutch Reformed / Calvinist religious culture, and De Vries was raised in a strict Dutch Christian Reformed environment on Chicago’s South Side.

From an early age, De Vries navigated cultural tensions: the immigrant community identity, religious expectations, and a lively mind drawn to literature and humor.

His father apparently expected him to pursue the ministry, and De Vries enrolled at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, intending (at least in part) to satisfy parental hopes.

He also undertook further studies at Northwestern University after his undergraduate degree.

Early Career & orial Work

After college, De Vries supported himself through a variety of modest jobs: operating vending machines, selling toffee apples, acting on radio, odd jobs in printing, and the like. editor of Poetry magazine (1938–1944) in Chicago, which exposed him to a wide swath of literary voices and networks.

At the insistence of James Thurber, De Vries joined The New Yorker’s staff, where he worked from 1944 until about 1987, contributing stories, refining cartoon captions, and serving as a kind of literary fixer and grammarian. The New Yorker’s style — the subtle, polished, ironic tone.

His editorial and literary networks helped him consolidate a voice that combined polished craftsmanship with sly humor.

Novels, Style & Major Works

Literary Style & Themes

Peter De Vries’s writing is often described as “comic visionary” — he wielded satire, irony, wordplay, and linguistic flourish, yet beneath humor lay serious themes: faith, existential doubt, loss, domestic tension, and mortality.

He often approached familiar settings (marriage, suburbia, religion) and refracted them through a slightly skewed lens, exposing absurdity, contradictions, and emotional undercurrents.

His prose is marked by playful syntax, clever turns of phrase, paradoxes, and a love of verbal twists. Many of his lines are remembered as epigrams.

Major Novels & Works

De Vries was prolific. According to , he produced twenty-five novels, as well as short stories, essays, poetry, novellas, and a play. twenty-three novels.

Here are some notable works and their significance:

• But Who Wakes the Bugler? (1940) — one of his early novels.

• The Tunnel of Love (1954) — perhaps his best-known work; it was adapted into a Broadway play and a film.

• Reuben, Reuben (1964) — another comic novel later adapted (film / stage).

• The Blood of the Lamb (1961) — deeply personal, driven by the grief of losing his daughter Emily to leukemia, this novel is seen as a turning point in his work.

• Let Me Count the Ways (1965)

• The Mackerel Plaza, The Tents of Wickedness, Comfort Me with Apples, The Vale of Laughter, and many more.

• His later works include Peckham’s Marbles (1986) as one of his final novels.

Despite his success during his lifetime, by the time of his death all his novels had gone out of print.

Adaptations & Influence

A number of De Vries’s novels were adapted into stage plays and films:

• The Tunnel of Love (1958 film)

• How Do I Love Thee? (1970 film adaptation of Let Me Count the Ways)

• Pete ’n’ Tillie (1972, based partially on Witch’s Milk)

• Reuben, Reuben (1983 film)

De Vries’s influence is felt in the way later writers treat comedic irony, domestic satire, and the weaving of serious emotional themes with wit. Scholars often group him with comic writers like Thurber, S. J. Perelman, and Robert Benchley, though De Vries brought his own deeper tone.

Personal Life, Tragedy & Later Years

Peter De Vries met Katinka Loeser, a poet and contributor to Poetry magazine, while working there, and they married in 1943. Westport, Connecticut in 1948, where they raised four children: Derek, Jon, Jan, and Emily. Emily died of leukemia at age 10 after a two-year illness. That loss cast a long shadow on De Vries’s emotional life and his writing, and directly inspired The Blood of the Lamb.

His wife, Katinka, died in 1991. Norwalk, Connecticut on September 28, 1993, at the age of 83.

In his obituary The New Yorker described him as a “tall, sweet, rueful man,” whose burdens included a serious Calvinist upbringing and a quick-fire gift for irony.

De Vries is buried (along with his wife and children) in Willowbrook Cemetery, Westport, Connecticut.

Famous Quotes

Peter De Vries remains well-known for his sharp aphorisms and quips. Below are several of his more enduring and representative quotes:

“Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.”

“Everybody hates me because I’m so universally liked.”

“I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.”

“What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial — or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”

“Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.”

“We must love one another, yes, yes, that's all true enough, but nothing says we have to like each other.”

These reflect his blend of irony, world-weariness, existential probing, and linguistic flair.

Lessons & Insights

From the life and work of Peter De Vries, several lessons emerge:

1. Humor can house depth.
   De Vries shows that comedy need not be superficial — beneath wit can lurk sorrow, faith, doubt, and the weight of loss.

2. Master your voice.
   His style was consistent and unmistakable: word-play, irony, verbal dexterity. He refined a voice rather than chase trends.

3. Engage contradictions.
   De Vries often held opposing elements in tension (faith and doubt, laughter and grief, despair and beauty).

4. Art from pain.
   The tragedy of Emily’s death became central to his work; rather than bury it, he transformed it through narrative.

5. Longevity through consistency.
   His decades of writing, editing, and contributions to magazines like The New Yorker show the value of sustained craftsmanship.

6. Respect the quiet power of language.
   Even a short epigram can carry weight across decades — as De Vries’s quotes continue to demonstrate.

Conclusion

Peter De Vries stands as a distinctive, deeply human voice in American fiction: a satirist who never disguised the existential shadows underlying human comedy, a stylist who loved to play with language, and a pathfinder who mixed laughter and grief in delicate balance. His novels, essays, and witty lines remain worthy of revisiting, and his ability to expose absurdity while acknowledging sorrow grants him a timeless place in literary memory.