Wikipedia

John Cournos

John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun (Иван Григорьевич Коршун[1][2]) (6 March 1881 – 27 August 1966), was an American writer and translator.

Image of John Cournos

Biography

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Cournos was born into a Russian Jewish family in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). His first language was Yiddish; he studied Russian, German, and Hebrew with a tutor at home.[3] When he was 10 years old his family emigrated to Philadelphia, where he learned English.

Later in life he married Helen Kestner Satterthwaite (1893–1960), who was also an author and published under the pseudonyms Sybil Norton and John Hawk. His affair with Dorothy L. Sayers was fictionalised by Sayers in the detective book Strong Poison (1930) and by Cournos himself in The Devil Is an English Gentleman (1932).[4]

Literary career

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In June 1912, Cournos moved to London, where he freelanced as an interviewer and critic for both UK and US publications and began his literary career as a poet and, later, novelist. He later emigrated to the US, where he spent the rest of his life.

He was one of the Imagist poets, but is better known for his novels, short stories, essays, and criticism, as well as for his translations of Russian literature.[5] He used the pseudonym John Courtney. He also wrote for The Philadelphia Record under the pseudonym "Gorky." From 1937 to 1947, his work was published in The Atlantic.[6]

Cournos and Satterthwaite, under her pseudonym Sybil Norton, collaborated on several books, including Famous Modern American Novelists, Famous British Novelists, Best World Short Stories of 1947, and John Adams a biography.[7]

Anti-communism

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In the aftermath of the October Revolution Cournos was involved with a London-based anti-Communist organisation, the Russian Liberation Committee. On its behalf, he wrote in 1919 a propaganda pamphlet, London under the Bolsheviks: A Londoner's Dream on Returning from Petrograd, based largely on what he saw during his 1917–1918 visit to Aleksey Remizov, whose Chasy he was then translating as The Clock.[8] It closely parallels the early events of the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, but with a British setting.

Death

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Cournos died in New York City at the age of 85 in the New York Infirmary, survived by two stepchildren via Satterthwaite.[9]

Bibliography

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  • Gordon Craig and the Theatre of the Future (1914)
  • The Mask (1919)[10]
  • London Under the Bolsheviks (1919)[11]
  • The Wall (1921?)[12]
  • Babel (1922)[13]
  • The Best British Short Stories of 1922 (as Editor, 1922?)
  • In Exile (1923)
  • The New Candide (1924)[14]
  • Sport of Gods (1925)[15]
  • Miranda Masters (1926)[16]
  • O'Flaherty the Great (1928)
  • A Modern Plutarch (1928)[17]
  • Short Stories out of Soviet Russia (1929)
  • Grandmother Martin Is Murdered (1930)
  • Wandering Women/The Samovar (1930)
  • The Devil Is an English Gentleman (1932)[18]
  • Autobiography (1935)[19]
  • An Epistle to the Hebrews (1938)[20]
  • An Open Letter to Jews and Christians (1938)
  • Hear, O Israel (1938)
  • Book of Prophecy from Egyptians to Hitler (1938)[21]
  • A Boy Named John (1941)[22]
  • A Treasury of Russian Life and Humor (1943)[23]
  • Famous Modern American Novelists (1952)[24]
  • Pilgrimage to Freedom (1953; written jointly with Sybil Norton, illustrated by Rus Anderson)
  • American Short Stories of the Nineteenth Century (1955: Everyman's Library)
  • A Teasury of Classic Russian literature (1961)[25]
  • With Hey, Ho... and The Man with the Spats (1963)
  • The Created Legend – translation of a book by Fyodor Sologub [pseud.] (unknown date of publication)[26]

References

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  1. ↑ He himself used the form Johann Gregorevich for his birth name.
  2. ↑ Smith, Marilyn Schwinn (2012). "Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material". In Anthony Cross (ed.). A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture. Open Book Publishers. p. 190. doi:10.11647/obp.0022.13. ISBN 978-1909254107.
  3. ↑ Smith, Marilyn Schwinn (2012). "Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material". In Anthony Cross (ed.). A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture. Open Book Publishers. p. 190. doi:10.11647/obp.0022.13. ISBN 978-1909254107.
  4. ↑ DuBose, Martha Hailey (11 December 2000). Women of Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists. St. Martin's Publishing. ISBN 9780312276553. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Smith, Marilyn Schwinn (2013), "The London Making of a Modernist: John Cournos in Babel", in Asya, Ferdâ (ed.), American Writers in Europe: 1850 to the Present, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 75–96, doi:10.1057/9781137340023_5, ISBN 978-1-137-34002-3, retrieved 18 March 2026
  6. ↑ "John Cournos, The Atlantic". The Atlantic. 1 October 1947. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  7. ↑ "John Cournos, 85, Wrote Novels and Book Reviews". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Smith, Marilyn Schwinn (2012). "Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material". In Anthony Cross (ed.). A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture. Open Book Publishers. pp. 191–192. doi:10.11647/obp.0022.13. ISBN 978-1909254107.
  9. ↑ "John Cournos, 85, Wrote Novels and Book Reviews". The New York Times. 28 August 1966. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  10. ↑ Cournos, John (1919). The Mask. George H. Doran.
  11. ↑ Cournos, John (1918). London Under the Bolsheviks. Russian Liberation Committee.
  12. ↑ Cournos, John; Methuen & Co. pbl; George H. Doran Company. pbl; Northumberland Press. prt. The wall. University of California Libraries. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. ; New York : George H. Doran Company.
  13. ↑ Cournos, John (1922). Babel. Boni and Liveright.
  14. ↑ Cournos, John (1924). The New Candide. Boni and Liveright.
  15. ↑ Cournos, John (1925). Sport of Gods: A Play in Three Acts with Prologue and Epilogue. E. Benn limited.
  16. ↑ "CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS; MIRANDA MASTERS. By John Cournos. 270 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf". The New York Times. 25 April 1926. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  17. ↑ John Cournos (1928). A Modern Plutarch.
  18. ↑ Cournos, John (2013). The Devil Is an English Gentleman. Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-4940-7695-5.
  19. ↑ Cournos, John (1935). Autobiography. Putnam.
  20. ↑ "An epistle to the Hebrews by John Cournos | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  21. ↑ "Our World as Soothsayers Saw It; A BOOK OF PROPHECY: From the Egyptians to Hitler. Edited, with an introduction, by John Cournos. With decorations by John C. Wonsetler, 274 pp. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.50". The New York Times. 29 March 1942. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  22. ↑ Cournos, John (1941). A boy named John. New York: C. Scribner's sons.
  23. ↑ "A Treasury of Russian Life and Humor". The Atlantic. 1 January 1944. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  24. ↑ Scoggin, Margaret C. (31 August 1952). "Facts About Fiction; FAMOUS BRITISH NOVELISTS. By John Cournos and Sybil Norton. Photographs. 130 pp. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.50. FAMOUS MODERN AMERICAN NOVELISTS. By John Cournos and Sybil Norton. Photographs. 181 pp. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.50. For Ages 12 to 16". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  25. ↑ A treasury of classic Russian literature.
  26. ↑ "The, by Feodor Sologub". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
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