SOURCE: "Cozzens's Debt to Thomas Dekker in Ask Me Tomorrow," in Markham Review, Vol. 11, Fall, 1981, pp. 11-16.

In the essay below, Cass compares the characters and themes of Cozzens's Ask Me Tomorrow with Thomas Dekker's play, The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus (1599), contending that the play provided the basis for Cozzens's story.

When James Gould Cozzens finished his ninth novel, he wanted to call it "Young Fortunatus," but Alfred Harcourt dissuaded him "on the reasonable grounds that since he had never [sic] heard of Old Fortunatus most other readers wouldn't have, and might wonder, irked, what the hell I meant. The book didn't sell at all so it could have made no difference and I wish now I had used it." [Cozzens in a letter to James B. Merriwether, 27 March 1962]. The first edition was published in 1940 as Ask Me Tomorrow. Later it was republished in the Uniform Edition...