Cornford, John

Cornford, John 

Born Dec. 28, 1915, in Cambridge; died Dec. 27, 1936, in Córdoba, Spain. English poet and journalist. A leader of the British Komsomol; joined the British Communist Party in 1932.

Cornford attended Cambridge University (1934–36). He died in battle as an International Brigade volunteer in the National Revolutionary War in Spain of 1936–39. A revolutionary poet and Marxist critic, Cornford did his most vivid writing during the Spanish period—his diary, letters, and the narrative poem “Full Moon Over Tierza: Before the Storming of Huesca” (1936; Russian translation, 1937).

WORKS

A Memoir. London, 1938.
Communism Was My Waking Time. Moscow, 1958.

REFERENCES

Startsev, A. “Tri anglichanina.” Krasnaia nov’, 1938, no. 3.
Stansky, P., and W. Abrahams. Journey to the Frontier: Julian Bell and John Cornford. Their Lives and the 1930’s. London, 1966.