Printed Biographies
There are three principal printed biographies available:
- The pioneer work was published by Graves' friend Martin Seymour-Smith in 1982. This established the framework for the life of Robert Graves which subsequent biographers have followed fairly closely. Seymour-Smith's book, Robert Graves: His Life and Work was republished in Graves' centenary year (1995) in a much expanded edition - an extra 30,000 words. The 1995 edition contains much material which was considered difficult to publish while Laura Riding (Graves' collaborator and muse during the late twenties and thirties) was still alive. This is the most sympathetic of the biographies, but not hagiographic: a poet's account of a fellow poet.
- The most comprehensive biography is the triple-decker produced by Graves' nephew, Richard Perceval Graves. This biography, sanctioned by the Graves family, is the product of ten years work, and the first volume: The Assault Heroic 1895 1926, was published in 1986. The second, The Years with Laura Riding 1926-1940, first appeared in 1990; the concluding volume, Robert Graves and the White Goddess 1940-1985 was published in Graves' centenary year. This is a biography which will be mined for information for ever and a day: it is less interpretative than the others, but none the worse for that.The received Robert Graves is very much a matter of academic convenience, and RPG's biography contains enough materials and pointers for several different assessments of the 'real' Robert Graves.
- The third printed biography is by Miranda Seymour: Robert Graves: Life on the Edge. Its publication was marked by a launch at the Reform Club in London in the spring of 1995, for which the wearing of ties was obligatory. This biography was also sanctioned by the Graves family. Of the three, it is the most artistically successful, despite an essentially chronological treatment: it takes a stronger tack on interpretation. However it is now less highly regarded by Graves scholars than it was at the time of its publication: volumes 2 and 3 of the 'Collected Poems' (edited by Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward) do not list Seymour's book in the section on biographical resources. The first chapter is available on the web from the Washington Post (see below).
- Critical Studies: Those looking for printed critical studies of Robert Graves work should consult the third section of the Robert Graves Society biography, written by Ian Firla (see below).
Biographical Resources on the Web
- Robert Graves : Life on the Edge. The first chapter of Miranda Seymour's 1995 biography of Robert Graves, available from the Washington Post. The Biography was reviewed by John Presley.
- Miranda Seymour's "The Telling" (published in the US as: 'The Summer of '39'). Taking us from the century's opening years up to the summer of 1939, Seymour's novel is loosely based on the events which took place when Robert Graves and Laura Riding left Europe to spend a summer with a young couple they had never previously met. Writing the biography of Graves, Miranda Seymour noted that this was an episode `so extraordinary, so bizarre that it seems more suited to fiction.' Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are available on the web.
- A review of "The Telling" which appeared in the Independent Newspaper (UK) on the 11th April 1998. Page no longer available. [review linked 23rd April 1999. Link removed 24th April 2000]
- Michelle Fry's short Biography of Robert Graves, part of 'Counter Attack', her site on Siegfried Sassoon. Based partly on Martin Seymour-Smith's entry for Robert Graves in the Oxford Companion to 20th-Century Poetry, ed. by Ian Hamilton, Oxford University Press (1994). Michelle Fry is a regular contributor to the JTAP WW1 mailing list.[link added 31 Jan 1999; 'Counter Attack' moved from Geocities to Demon on the 26th July 1999. Links amended 20 Aug 1999]
- Biography of Robert Graves available from Richard Schumaker's Focus on Robert Graves and his Contemporaries site.
- A Robert Graves Biography by Ian Firla, available from the Robert Graves Society. In four sections. This has replaced the biography of Graves by Robert Bertholf, available at the same address since the summer of 1996. [22 March 1999]
- Robert Graves : a brief account of his life made available by the Academy of American Poets, featuring a RealAudio file of R.G. reading his poem "To Juan at the Summer Solstice". Also contains a bibliography.
- A brief account (German) of Graves in Deià : DEIÀ UND DER GRAVES-MYTHOS. Contains photographs of Graves, Ava Gardner and the village.
- A brief account of Robert Graves life from the Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia site, designed for the use of schools. The second half of the account unfortunately gives the impression that Graves did not live in Majorca much after the war until his "retirement" in 1975, but for the early part of Graves life it is reasonably reliable.[30 April 1999]
- Where the crakeberries grow - Robert Graves gives an account of himself to Leslie Norris. First published in The Listener, 28 May 1970. Available from Brigham Young University, 26 April 1999.[link added 04 May 1999]
Page updated 24 April 2000
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