Cozzens Possessed

Literary reputation is based on talent, performance, and overall achievement, or so one would have thought. Alas, to think so is often to be mistaken, for much else, sometimes a great deal else, comes into play, elevating some reputations, sinking others. Think of Willa Cather, who for so many years was denied her rightful place among the great American novelists because her novels were thought insufficiently modernist.

According to Dwight MacDonald, the phenomenal success of James Gould Cozzens’ By Love Possessed indicates a new trend in American middlebrow culture. _____________ The most alarming literary news in years is the enormous success of James Gould Cozzens’ By Love Possessed.1 It sold 170,000 copies in the first six weeks of publication—more than all eleven of the author’s previous novels put together. At this writing, it has been at the top of the best-seller lists for two months.