Aurora Cornu

Aurora Cornu (6 December 1931 – 14 March 2021) was a Romanian-born French writer, actress, film director, and translator. Her best known role is that of Aurora in Éric Rohmer's Claire's Knee.

Biography She was born in Provița de Jos, Prahova County, Romania. An independent spirit, she ran away three times from home, the last time permanently at the age of 14. She was adopted by an uncle. Her father died in prison after he was arrested for harbouring a fugitive general of the defunct Romanian Royal Army (who was another of her uncles) for 11 years.

Her first husband was Marin Preda, to whom she was married between 1955 and 1959 (or 1960).

Her fiancé in the mid-1960s, mathematician Tudor Ganea, did not succeed in getting her out of Romania, so she saw her chance to defect to the West while she was at the poetry festival in Knokke-Het Zoute, Belgium. She settled down in Paris, France, where, being destitute, Pierre Emmanuel's wife paid her rent for several years.

Between 1967 and 1978 she was a collaborator of Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca in their literary radio program aired by Radio Free Europe.

She paid construction costs for a church located in Cornu, Prahova County. Its design was inspired by a Horia Damian drawing.

Books Studenta (1954) Distanțe (1962)

Marin Preda, Scrisori către Aurora (1998)

Translations Hamlet, under the pseudonym Ștefan Runcu in: William Shakespeare, Romeo și Julieta. Hamlet, București: Editura pentru Literatură, 1962.