An Analytical Survey of the Robert Graves Holdings at the State University of New York (SUNY)

 

1. In the St John's College, Oxford Robert Graves Trust Archive, there is a letter (Feb. 16, 1987) from Robert J. Bertholf, Curator of The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY), confirming that an attempt had been made to list the manuscript holdings of Graves' materials. At the time the job was unfinished. The job remains unfinished, largely owing to the expense of the operation.

2. The letter is accompanied by three pages describing the "Robert Graves Collection". This description, plus a little more gleaned from a SUNY web page, is all there is in the way of available written information about the Collection.

3. The Collection holds the papers used by Martin Seymour-Smith to write his biography of Graves, and we can get an idea of what is there from that (the M. S-Smith collection amounts to four linear feet of material, which includes "working papers, including notes, photocopies of subsequently missing or destroyed materials, hundreds of letters from poets and acquaintances of Graves.... There are several hundred letters to Seymour-Smith by Graves and other poets, as well as a grand variety of supporting materials").The "Martin Seymour-Smith Collection" now appears in the RLIN database, and members of the CURL group of libraries (UK) now have easy access to this.

4. "There are over 275 publications in the Graves Collection, excluding anthologies, periodical appearances, and broadsides...[we have] the manuscripts of all Graves' books of poetry and some works in prose published from 1911 until 1955..." There is also a copy of the script used for the B.B.C.'s serialization of I, Claudius. "Graves' habit was to write, revise, and rewrite individual poems many times, even after their appearance in print... so the manuscripts for an individual book consist of hundreds of pages.The manuscript papers for Whipperginny (1923)... include sixty-six poems. The position is similar for manuscripts of Mock Beggar Hall and The Pier Glass. The single poem, "The Rock Below", has ten drafts, with seventeen sheets of paper, and each draft contains substantive alterations on the way to the final version. In all, there are eight linear feet of these manuscripts".

4.1 The archive further contains the author's edition of--as well as two corrected typescript manuscripts for--the pivotal book Good-bye to All That (1929), with Graves' revisions and deletions made in preparation for the second edition. Also a part of the collection are his correspondence to Lynette Roberts, which traces the formation of The White Goddess (1948), and hundreds of other letters to and from other poets.... Some photographs, the knapsack Graves used during World War I, and other memorabilia are also present....

5. The Collection also possesses the working manuscripts for several of the novels [Bertholf letter]. The typescript of The Greek Myths is on the reverse "of many of our manuscripts" [ibid]. We know from the source listing in O'Prey's In Broken Images that some material relating to Alan Hodge is also present. Quantity unknown. "Hundreds of other letters to and from other poets" (the only figure available for the number of Graves letters in this collection comes from the updated Higginson bibliography - see below).Corrected typescripts of the late novel, Homer's Daughter (1955),"which clearly show Graves' revising the text in terms of an altered sense of the novel". Some photographs and memorabilia.The letters from Graves to Sally Chilver, "who provided important materials for Graves' King Jesus" (1946).There is also a substantial holding of Laura Riding material: a complete set of her first editions as well as manuscripts and letters.

6. The updated Higginson Bibliography gives slightly different information about the collection. Thus "the collection holds a complete first edition collection of all books and pamphlets published from 1913 [sic] to the present; 314 letters, 9 linear feet of manuscripts covering the years 1911 to 1980 [which allows the deduction that the manuscript holdings from 1956 to 1980 occupy one linear foot]; 52 letters and 1 foot of manuscripts in the Laura Riding Collection; plus four linear feet of Graves materials in the Martin Seymour-Smith archive" This collection contains "several hundred letters" by Graves also. If this means around 300, as it does in the case of the main body of the collection, then we are talking of some 600 letters by Graves altogether at Buffalo. [Higginson, App.II].The total footage of material in the SUNY collection which is relevant to Graves amounts to 14 linear feet.

7. The Web pages give the following useful additional information:

7.1 Since 1979 the Graves Collection has been further enriched. All the American editions of the books have been purchased, as have second and other bibliographically important editions. When Martin Seymour -Smith's biography, Robert Graves: His Life and Work (1982), appeared, the Poetry Collection was able to acquire ... the unexpurgated version of the biography itself. Very recently, the letters of Graves to Sally Chilver.....were added to the collection.

7.2 The manuscripts are now being sorted and arranged in preparation for a complete printed catalog of the holdings. The books and pamphlets are available through the author-title catalog.... The book and manuscript collection, supported by the little magazine and anthology collection, give the researcher access to the full range of primary and secondary materials.

Document first published 3.3.96. Minor revisions 20.4.98.

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Page updated 28 Sept 1998

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