Comments on: James Gould Cozzens http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2008/05/02/james-gould-cozzens/ Houghton Library, Harvard University Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:07:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Anthony Chase http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2008/05/02/james-gould-cozzens/comment-page-1/#comment-2883 Anthony Chase Tue, 18 Oct 2011 07:00:16 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2008/05/02/james-gould-cozzens/#comment-2883 I recently read Cozzens' THE JUST AND THE UNJUST and in spite of his purported decades-long fall from bestselling author status if not from grace, I thought it was an excellent novel and reminded me a good deal of the later Otto Preminger motion picture, ANATOMY OF A MURDER. The similarities were in the genuine excitement generated from the quotidian machinations of trial strategy in criminal cases. Okay, so who can tell me this? How come Cozzens, who apparently did not even finish college (Harvard) let alone graduate from law school or practice law, knew THAT MUCH about law? On the one hand, I doubt anyone could master that amount of legal knowledge (some of it from inside) without practicing law or working very closely on the book with someone who did. On the other hand, there is a 'legal mistake' in the book that most lawyers would not make and certainly suggests that Cozzens was not legally trained after all. Anybody have any clues? Anthony Chase 10/17/2011 billywadeqb@yahoo.com I recently read Cozzens’ THE JUST AND THE UNJUST and in spite of his purported decades-long fall from bestselling author status if not from grace, I thought it was an excellent novel and reminded me a good deal of the later Otto Preminger motion picture, ANATOMY OF A MURDER. The similarities were in the genuine excitement generated from the quotidian machinations of trial strategy in criminal cases. Okay, so who can tell me this? How come Cozzens, who apparently did not even finish college (Harvard) let alone graduate from law school or practice law, knew THAT MUCH about law?

On the one hand, I doubt anyone could master that amount of legal knowledge (some of it from inside) without practicing law or working very closely on the book with someone who did. On the other hand, there is a ‘legal mistake’ in the book that most lawyers would not make and certainly suggests that Cozzens was not legally trained after all. Anybody have any clues?

Anthony Chase 10/17/2011
billywadeqb@yahoo.com

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