largely apolitical and not particularly religious. His attempts to counter this incorrect image met with little success, and he soon forfeited whatever fan base he had gained from By Love Possessed. His reputation was further lambasted during 1968 by critics (in particular John Updike) of his final book, Morning, Noon, and Night, which had a nearly unreadable style (even by the author's usual standards) and a protagonist that was not interesting or compelling. As a result, sales of all his books suffered, and Cozzens has become virtually unknown to the general public; he remains, however, fairly well known among those familiar with the literary criticism of George Steiner John Derbyshire and Matthew Bruccoli, all of whom have praised his work. Legacy Today, Cozzens is often grouped with his contemporaries John O'Hara and John P. Marquand, but his work is generally considered more challenging. His biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli, noted the following qualities in Cozzens' prose style, by describing his language use in the best seller By Love Possessed this way: Cozzens was a critic of modernism, and of realism more leftist than his own, and he was quoted in a featured article in Time as saying (perhaps somewhat in jest), "I can't read ten pages of Steinbeck without throwing up." Selected publications 1924 Confusion 1925 Michael Scarlett 1928 Cock Pit 1929 The Son of Perdition 1931 S.S. San Pedro 1933 The Last Adam 1933 A Cure of Flesh 1934 Castaway 1936 Men and Brethren 1940 Ask Me Tomorrow 1942 The Just and the Unjust 1948 Guard of Honor 1957 By Love Possessed 1964 Children and Others, a volume of short stories 1968 Morning, Noon, and Night (Harcourt Trade Publishers). 1976 A Rope for Doctor Webster Awards and honors 1957 Pulitzer Prize nomination By Love Possessed 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Guard of Honor 1931 O. Henry Award for "A Farewell to Cuba" 1936 O. Henry Award for "Total Stranger" 1931 Scribner's Prize for S.S. San Pedro Personal background Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cozzens grew up on Staten Island. His father, Henry William Cozzens Jr., who died when Cozzens was 17, was an affluent businessman and the grandson of William C. Cozzens, a governor of Rhode Island. His mother, Mary Bertha Wood, came from a family of Connecticut Tories who left for Nova Scotia following the American Revolution. Cozzens grew up in the same privileged lifestyle that formed the background of his