John Cournos

John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun (1881 - 1966), was a writer and translator of Russian-Jewish background who spent his later life in exile. In June 1912, he 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...See more

John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun (1881 - 1966), was a writer and translator of Russian-Jewish background who spent his later life in exile. In June 1912, he 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, and as a translator of Russian literature. He used the pseudonym John Courtney. He also wrote for The Philadelphia Record under the pseudonym "Gorky." Later in life he married Helen Kestner (1893-1960), who was also an author, under the pseudonym Sybil Norton. However, he is probably best known for his unhappy affair with Dorothy L. Sayers, fictionalized by Sayers in the detective book Strong Poison (1930) and by Cournos himself in The Devil Is an English Gentleman (1932). See less