Frederick Swartwout Cozzens

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Frederick Swartwout Cozzens (1818-69) was an American humorist, born in New York City. He became in early life a wine merchant, and later editor of the Wine Press. He had previously contributed humorous poems and articles to magazines, and in 1853 he issued his first volume, Prismatics, under the pen name "Richard Haywarde." Then came the Sparrowgrass Papers, his best performance, first published in the Knickerbocker Magazine, and in 1856 as a widely read volume. They dealt with the trials of a city man who undertakes to run a country home (near Yonkers), and although the humor is mild, they are still fairly readable. Three years later (1859) he published a volume of travel sketches, Acadia; or a Sojourn among the Blue Noses. Soon after the War of the Rebellion he failed in a business for which he had labored earnestly, especially by promoting the sale of native wines, and retired from Yonkers to Rahway, N. J. Of his other works, only Poems (1867) and a Memorial of Fitz-Greene Halleck (1868) need be named.

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.