Cornford, Frances Crofts (1886–1960)

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Cornford, Frances Crofts (1886–1960)

British poet. Name variations: Frances Crofts Darwin. Born Frances Crofts Darwin, Mar 30, 1886, in Cambridge, England; died Aug 19, 1960, in Cambridge; dau. of Francis Darwin and Ellen Crofts Darwin; granddau. of Charles Darwin; m. John M. Cornford, 1909; children: 5, including John Cornford (poet who died in Spanish Civil War).

Works of poetry include Poems (1910), Autumn Midnight (1923), Mountains and Molehills (1934), Collected Poems (1954) and On a Calm Shore (1960); translations include (with E.P. Salaman) Poems from the Russian (1943) and (with S. Spender) Le Dur desir du durer by Paul Eluard (1950).

See also J. Galassi, ed., Understand the Weapon, Understand the Wound: Selected Writings of John Cornford with Some Letters of Frances Cornford (Carcanet, 1976).