Cozzens, James Gould << KUHZ uhnz, jaymz goold >> (1903-1978), an American author, became best known for his novels of upper-class manners. Cozzens’s fiction shows his fascination with social roles and forms. His typical hero is a professional man who distrusts emotion and believes in reason and self-discipline. Cozzens’s style is analytical and filled with realistic detail.
Cozzens won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel Guard of Honor (1948), which concerns military life on an Air Force base. Cozzens’s most popular novel is By Love Possessed (1957). The work investigates how a lawyer’s life and principles are shaken by discoveries he makes about his friends and family. Men and Brethren (1936) is a study of a liberal clergyman. The Just and the Unjust (1942) describes the impact of a murder trial on the various participants.
Cozzens was born on Aug. 19, 1903, in Chicago. He wrote his first novel in 1924, but his first notable work was the novelette S.S. San Pedro (1931). He died on Aug. 9, 1978.
