Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Cozzens, James Gould (Vol. 92) - Terry Teachout (review date 28 February 1986)

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Terry Teachout (review date 28 February 1986)

SOURCE: A review of Selected Notebooks: 1960–1967, in National Review, Vol. XXXVIII, February 28, 1986, pp. 60-1.

[Teachout is an American musician, editor, and essayist, whose books include Beyond the Boom: New Voices on American Life, Politics, and Culture (1990) and Under Midwestern Eyes: Memories of a Lapsed Missourian (1991). In the review below, he favorably assesses Notebooks as a valuable introduction to Cozzens's reflections on literature.]

Matthew Bruccoli's 1983 biography James Gould Cozzens: A Life Apart contained a lengthy appendix of excerpts from a set of notebooks Cozzens began keeping three years after the publication of By Love Possessed. These blunt and unguarded journal entries revealed the real Cozzens—stoic, sardonic, full of unfashionable social and literary prejudices—with exceptional vividness, and it isn't surprising...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. George J. Becker (review date June 1949)
   2. Martin Price (review date Autumn 1957)
   3. Benjamin De Mott (essay date Winter 1957)
   4. Richard G. Stern (review date Winter 1958)
   5. Frederick Bracher (essay date 1959)
   6. The Times Literary Supplement (review date 6 May 1965)
   7. John Brooks (review date 25 August 1968)
   8. John Updike (review date 2 November 1968)
   9. The Times Literary Supplement (review date 30 January 1969)
   10. James A. Epperson (review date 8 December 1978)
   11. Robert Scholes (essay date 1979)
   12. Colin S. Cass (essay date Fall 1981)
   13. Irving Malin (essay date Winter 1981)
   14. Terry Teachout (review date 28 February 1986)
   15. Richard A. Posner (essay date 1988)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright