{{Short description|American writer (1881–1966)}} {{Use American English|date=June 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} [[File:John-Cournos.jpg|thumb|Image of John Cournos]] '''John Cournos''', born '''Ivan Grigorievich Korshun''' ({{lang|ru|Иван Григорьевич Коршун}}<ref>He himself used the form ''Johann Gregorevich'' for his birth name.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Smith |author-first=Marilyn Schwinn |chapter=Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material |editor=Anthony Cross |editor-link=Anthony Cross (literary scholar) |title=A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture |publisher=[[Open Book Publishers]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1909254107 |doi=10.11647/obp.0022.13 |page=190 |doi-access=free }}</ref>) (6 March 1881 – 27 August 1966), was an American writer and translator.

==Biography== Cournos was born into a [[Russian Jew]]ish family in [[Zhytomyr]], [[Russian Empire]] (now in [[Ukraine]]). His first language was [[Yiddish]]; he studied Russian, German, and Hebrew with a tutor at home.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Smith |author-first=Marilyn Schwinn |chapter=Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material |editor=Anthony Cross |editor-link=Anthony Cross (literary scholar) |title=A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture |publisher=[[Open Book Publishers]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1909254107 |doi=10.11647/obp.0022.13 |page=190 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 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).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kce5KJMgvAsC&q=Helen+Kestner&pg=PT318 |title=Women of Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists |date=11 December 2000 |first=Martha Hailey |last=DuBose |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing |accessdate=13 November 2017|isbn=9780312276553 }}</ref>

=== Literary career === 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]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=Marilyn Schwinn |title=The London Making of a Modernist: John Cournos in Babel |date=2013 |work=American Writers in Europe: 1850 to the Present |pages=75–96 |editor-last=Asya |editor-first=Ferdâ |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137340023_5 |access-date=2026-03-18 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137340023_5 |isbn=978-1-137-34002-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1947-10-01 |title=John Cournos, The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-cournos/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/08/28/105248657.html?pageNumber=93 | title=John Cournos, 85, Wrote Novels and Book Reviews| work=The New York Times}}</ref>

=== Anti-communism === 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''.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Smith |author-first=Marilyn Schwinn |chapter=Aleksei Remizov's English-language Translators: New Material |editor=Anthony Cross |editor-link=Anthony Cross (literary scholar) |title=A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture |publisher=[[Open Book Publishers]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1909254107 |doi=10.11647/obp.0022.13 |pages=191–192 |doi-access=free }}</ref> It closely parallels the early events of the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, but with a British setting.

=== Death === Cournos died in New York City at the age of 85 in the [[New York Infirmary]], survived by two stepchildren via Satterthwaite.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1966-08-28 |title=John Cournos, 85, Wrote Novels and Book Reviews |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/08/28/archives/john-cournos-85-wrote-novels-and-book-reviews.html |access-date=2026-03-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Bibliography== *''[[Edward Gordon Craig|Gordon Craig]] and the Theatre of the Future'' (1914) *''The Mask'' (1919)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DAQmAAAAMAAJ |title=The Mask |date=1919 |publisher=George H. Doran |language=en}}</ref> *''London Under the Bolsheviks'' (1919)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/London_Under_the_Bolsheviks.html?id=far2ygAACAAJ |title=London Under the Bolsheviks |date=1918 |publisher=Russian Liberation Committee |language=en}}</ref> *''The Wall'' (1921?)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=http://archive.org/details/thewalljohn00courrich |title=The wall |last2=Methuen & Co. pbl |last3=George H. Doran Company. pbl |last4=Northumberland Press. prt |date= |publisher=London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. ; New York : George H. Doran Company |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> *''Babel'' (1922)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Babel.html?id=jwwPAAAAIAAJ |title=Babel |date=1922 |publisher=Boni and Liveright |language=en}}</ref> *''The Best British Short Stories of 1922'' (as Editor, 1922?) *''In Exile'' (1923) *''The New [[Candide]]'' (1924)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEd2Uo0ab7oC |title=The New Candide |date=1924 |publisher=Boni and Liveright |language=en}}</ref> *''Sport of Gods'' (1925)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1lCAAAAIAAJ |title=Sport of Gods: A Play in Three Acts with Prologue and Epilogue |date=1925 |publisher=E. Benn limited |language=en}}</ref> *''Miranda Masters'' (1926)<ref>{{Cite news |date=1926-04-25 |title=CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS; MIRANDA MASTERS. By John Cournos. 270 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/04/25/archives/conscientious-objectors-miranda-masters-by-john-cournos-270-pp-new.html |access-date=2026-03-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> *''O'Flaherty the Great'' (1928) *''A Modern Plutarch'' (1928)<ref>{{Cite book |last=John Cournos |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.186181 |title=A Modern Plutarch |date=1928}}</ref> *''Short Stories out of Soviet Russia'' (1929) *''Grandmother Martin Is Murdered'' (1930) *''Wandering Women/The Samovar'' (1930) *''The Devil Is an English Gentleman'' (1932)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Devil_Is_an_English_Gentleman.html?id=pUQnngEACAAJ |title=The Devil Is an English Gentleman |date=2013 |publisher=Literary Licensing, LLC |isbn=978-1-4940-7695-5 |language=en}}</ref> *''Autobiography'' (1935)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Autobiography.html?id=0opaAAAAMAAJ |title=Autobiography |date=1935 |publisher=Putnam |language=en}}</ref> *''An Epistle to the Hebrews'' (1938)<ref>{{Cite web |title=An epistle to the Hebrews by John Cournos {{!}} Open Library |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5144225W/An_epistle_to_the_Hebrews?edition=key:/books/OL6389500M |access-date=2026-03-26 |website=Open Library |language=en}}</ref> *''An Open Letter to Jews and Christians'' (1938) *''Hear, O Israel'' (1938) *''Book of Prophecy from Egyptians to Hitler'' (1938)<ref>{{Cite news |date=1942-03-29 |title=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. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1942/03/29/archives/our-world-as-soothsayers-saw-it-a-book-of-prophecy-from-the.html |access-date=2026-03-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> *''A Boy Named John'' (1941)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cournos |first=John |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6422078M/A_boy_named_John |title=A boy named John |date=1941 |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |location=New York}}</ref> *''A Treasury of Russian Life and Humor'' (1943)<ref>{{Cite news |date=1944-01-01 |title=A Treasury of Russian Life and Humor |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1944/01/a-treasury-of-russian-life-and-humor/655528/ |access-date=2026-03-26 |work=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}</ref> *''Famous Modern American Novelists ''(1952)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scoggin |first=Margaret C. |date=1952-08-31 |title=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. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/08/31/archives/facts-about-fiction-famous-british-novelists-by-john-cournos-and.html |access-date=2026-03-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> *''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)<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://cmc.marmot.org/Record/.b23389904 |title=A treasury of classic Russian literature}}</ref> *''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)<ref>{{Cite web |title=The, by Feodor Sologub |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7480/7480-h/7480-h.htm |access-date=2026-03-26 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author |id=2482| name=John Cournos}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Cournos}} * {{Librivox author |id=3369}} * [https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1137717A/John_Cournos List of books on the Open Library] * [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-cournos-dlb/ Dictionary of Literary Biography on John Cournos] * [http://www.infoukes.com/bookstore/gogintro.html John Cournos's online introduction to Gogol's "Taras Bulba and Other Tales"] * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/440582 An account by Alfred Satterthwaite, Cournos's stepson] * {{LCAuth|n82067305|John Cournos|57|ue}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cournos, John}} [[Category:1881 births]] [[Category:1966 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American novelists]] [[Category:20th-century American poets]] [[Category:20th-century American translators]] [[Category:British anti-communists]] [[Category:British emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:American male novelists]] [[Category:American male short story writers]] [[Category:American short story writers]] [[Category:Imagists]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States]] [[Category:American male essayists]] [[Category:American male poets]] [[Category:Russian–English translators]] [[Category:Russian anti-communists]] [[Category:20th-century Ukrainian Jews]] [[Category:20th-century American short story writers]] [[Category:20th-century American essayists]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]]