Bourne, Randolph

Bourne, Randolph (Silliman) (1886–1918) essayist, literary critic; born in Bloomfield, N.J. He was congenitally deformed (dwarfism) and did not begin college until age 23, but his intellectual range and brilliance were so developed that the same year he graduated from Columbia University (1913), he published his first collection of essays, Youth and Life. He traveled in Europe for a year (1913–14) where his optimism was tested by the breakout of World War I; on returning to the U.S.A. he contributed articles about general literacy and cultural issues to the New Republic, but his commitment to pacifism led him to publish in the more radical Masses. Just as his career as a writer was beginning to expand, he died during the postwar influenza epidemic.