James Gould Cozzens was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who, in an
earlier age when novelists were taken far more serious than they are in
the 21st Century, made the bestseller lists despite having a difficult,
off-putting literary style. Born into an affluent family in Chicago on
August 19, 1903, Cozzens was the great-grandson of William C. Cozzens,
who briefly served as governor of Rhode Island in 1863.
A conservative chronicler of the WASP society whose hegemony over
American culture (which he approved of) began to wane after the Second
World War, Cozzens -- once mentioned as a leading candidate for the
Nobel Prize for Literature in the 1950s -- is all but forgotten now.
After the war, he became the target of left-wing literary critics who
targeted him for what would now be termed his lack of "political
correctness".
In 1949, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his military novel "Guard of
Honor", which some critics thought was the best book to come out of
World War II. His novel
By Love Possessed (1961) was a
huge bestseller, and was adapted into a popular movie.
Aside from his service in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II,
Cozzens was a reclusive figure who shunned publicity. By the time he
died of pneumonia on August 9, 1978, just 10 days short of his 75th
birthday, his book sales had substantially declined.