Dorothy Cornish

Cornish was born in Sixhills, Lincolnshire, on 1 October 1870 to Rev. Frank Fortescue Cornish, H. M. Inspector of Schools, and Margaret Gertrude Cornish (née Garnier).^[1][2] Her maternal grandfather was Thomas Garnier the Younger and great grandfather was Thomas Garnier the Elder.^[3]

Cornish moved with her family to Manchester when she was six, following her father's work.^[1]

Cornish worked as a Montessori educator and acted as an interpreter for Maria Montessori during her English courses.^[4]

Cornish was a member of the Aëthnic Union, alongside Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper, Thomas Baty (also known as Irene Clyde) and Jessey Wade. In 1916, they co-founded the feminist journal Urania which she contributed and for which she served as an editor.^[5] She opposed the socialisation of children into gender roles.^[6] She moved to Siena around 1895 and spent most of her life in Italy, where she continued her work as a co-editor of Urania.^[1][7]

In 1914, she signed the Open Christmas Letter with 100 other suffragists, including Gore-Booth and Roper.^[8]

Cornish was a member of the Brontë Society.^[1] In 1940, she published a novel about the Brontë sisters.^[9] The novel was reviewed in The New York Times.^[10] She also translated two essays by Emily Brontë from French.^[11]

Cornish died in Sidmouth, Devon, on 7 October 1945.^[1]

• Verses (San Bernardino: Pontifical Printing-Office, 1904)
• Sealed Poetry by Robert Burns (editor and translator; Firenze: Landi, 1908)
• These Were the Brontes: A Novel (New York: Macmillan Co., 1940)