Modern Books and Manuscripts

We recently acquired a comprehensive collection of material by and relating to American novelist and almost-Harvard-graduate James Gould Cozzens (1903-1978). The collection includes a selection of Cozzens’s correspondence, manuscript drafts, photographs, and diaries, including the diary he kept while a Harvard student, and while he was working on his first novel, Confusion. With this collection came all of Cozzens’s published works, in multiple editions. The collection was formed by Cozzens’s bibliographers, Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli, who have additionally given Houghton Cozzens’s library.

Cozzens, who attended Harvard from 1922-1924, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for Guard of Honor, inspired by his experiences during World War II. Cozzens wrote thirteen additional novels and numerous short stories.

The collection includes numerous editions of all of Cozzens’s works, including Guard of Honor and By Love Possessed. Pictured below are four different editions of Guard of Honor. Starting in the upper right corner, and going clockwise, these include: the 1998 Modern Library edition; an advance copy of the 1948 first American edition; a 1952 Permabooks paperback (priced at 35 cents!); and the 1949 first British edition of the novel. (Click on the image twice to enlarge it.)

Cozzens Papers, *2007M-69. Individual books will be in HOLLIS shortly. Purchased with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust. Image may not be reproduced without permission.

The James Gould Cozzens by Modern Books and Manuscripts, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at blogs.law.harvard.edu.