Robert Graves

Personal

Vocation

Notable

British writer, a novelist, poet and critic, essayist, translator and general man of letters. He earned his living with historical novels, some 140 books, but his first love was always poetry. He was the author of "I, Claudius," 1934 which was made into a gripping TV presentation, the nonfiction, "A Survey of Modernistic Poetry," 1927, and "The White Goddess" (1948) Graves' presented himself as independent-minded and rebellious of traditional British regime in education and the military in his autobiography, "Good-Bye to All That," which he wrote in a furious 11 weeks in 1929; revised 1957. His rendition of his experiences during WW I angered some by introducing humor into his memoirs, but amused and intrigued others. His friend said that Graves "had the largest feet in the army and a genius for putting both of them in everything." Despised by middle-class officers, who thought him a bounder and a cad, he was considered "capital" by his working-class men who respected him for his loyalty to them and later, for his courage in combat. During the Battle of the Somme, he was wounded so severely by shrapnel that it was a wonder that he survived. Graves died on 9 December 1985, Majorca, Spain. Link to Wikipedia biography