Francis Macdonald Cornford (1874-1943) was an English classical scholar and poet.
He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1899; and held a university teaching post from 1902. He became Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1931.
His work Thucydides Mythistoricus (1907) argued that the history of the Peloponnesian War was informed by a tragic view of its author, Thucydides. He is probably better known now for his Microcosmographia Academica (1908), the classic satire on the insider's view of academic politics. It is the source of a number of catchphrases, such as the doctrine of unripeness of time.
He married the poet Frances Cornford (nee Darwin); the poet John Cornford was their son.
External link
