Robert Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985),[1][2] whose second name is sometimes given asvon Ranke,[3] was an English poet, novelist and critic. His father wasAlfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in theGaelic revival; they were bothCelticists and students ofIrish mythology.
Robert Graves produced more than 140 works in his lifetime. His poems, his translations, and innovative analysis of theGreek myths, his memoir of his early life—including his role in theFirst World War,Good-Bye to All That (1929), and his speculative study of poetic inspiration inThe White Goddess, have never been out of print.[4] He was also a renowned short story writer, with work such as "The Tenement" still read.
Graves was born into an upper-middle-class family inWimbledon, then part ofSurrey, now part of south London. He was the eighth of ten children born toAlfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931), who was the sixth child and second son ofCharles Graves,Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe.[6] His father was an Irish schools inspector,Gaelic scholar, and the author of the popular song "Father O'Flynn"; his mother, Amalie Elisabeth Sophie von Ranke (1857–1951), a grandniece of the historianLeopold von Ranke, was his father's second wife. One of his many uncles was the officer commanding theNore during theFirst World War,AdmiralSir Richard Poore.
At the age of seven,double pneumonia followingmeasles almost took Graves's life, the first of three occasions when he his doctors despaired of him as a result of afflictions of the lungs; the second was the result of a war wound, while the third came when he contractedSpanish influenza in late 1918, immediately beforedemobilization.[7]
Graves's birth was registered in 1895 under the name of Robert Ranke Graves.[2] He was baptized into theChurch of England as "Robert Ranke" on 1 September 1895 atWimbledon.[8]
In 1909, Graves was enrolled atCharterhouse School as Robert von Ranke Graves.[9] On 15 August 1914, he was commissioned into theRoyal Welch Fusiliers under this name,[10] and it appeared inThe London Gazette again when his commission was confirmed in March 1915.[11] However, he appears to have soon abandoned the addition of "von", as during the First World War having a German name caused him difficulties.[12]
Graves received his early education at a series of sixpreparatory schools, includingKing's College School inWimbledon, Penrallt in Wales,Hillbrow School inRugby,Rokeby School inWimbledon andCopthorne in Sussex, from which last in 1909 he won a scholarship toCharterhouse.[14] There he began to write poetry and took up boxing, in due course becoming school champion at bothwelter- andmiddleweight. He claimed that this was in response to persecution because of the German element in his name, his outspokenness, his scholarly and moral seriousness, and his poverty relative to the other boys.[15]
He also sang in the choir, meeting there an aristocratic boy three years younger,G. H. "Peter" Johnstone, with whom he began an intense romantic friendship, the scandal of which led ultimately to an interview with the headmaster.[16] However, Graves himself called it "chaste and sentimental" and "proto-homosexual", and though he was clearly in love with Peter (disguised by the name "Dick" inGood-Bye to All That), he denied that their relationship was ever sexual.[17] He was warned about Peter's "proclivities" by other contemporaries.[18]
Among the masters, his chief influence wasGeorge Mallory, who later died trying to scaleMount Everest, and who introduced him to contemporary literature and took him mountaineering in the holidays.[19][20] In his final year at Charterhouse, he won aclassicalexhibition toSt John's College, Oxford, but did not take his place there until after the war.[21]
At the outbreak of theFirst World War in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the 2nd Battalion of theRoyal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant (on probation) on 12 August.[22] He was confirmed in his rank on 10 March 1915,[23] and received rapid promotion, to lieutenant on 5 May 1915 and to captain on 26 October.[24][25] In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread the rumour that he was the brother of a captured German spy who had assumed the name "Karl Graves".[12] The problem resurfaced in a minor way in theSecond World War, when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to theSpecial Constabulary.[26] He published his first volume of poems,Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about the experience of frontline conflict. In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom", though the early "In the Wilderness" was retained. On 20 July atHigh Wood during theBattle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds.[27] He gradually recovered and, apart from a brief spell back in France, spent the remainder of the war in England.[28]
One of Graves's friends at this time was the poetSiegfried Sassoon, a fellow officer in his regiment. They both convalesced atSomerville College, Oxford, which was used as a hospital for officers. "How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford," Sassoon wrote to him in 1917. At Somerville College, Graves met and fell in love with Marjorie, a nurse and professional pianist, but stopped writing to her once he learned she was engaged. About his time at Somerville, he wrote: "I enjoyed my stay at Somerville. The sun shone, and the discipline was easy."[29] In 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face acourt martial and intervened with the military authorities, persuading them that Sassoon was experiencingshell shock and that they should treat him accordingly.[30] Sassoon was sent toCraiglockhart, a military hospital in Edinburgh, where he was treated byW. H. R. Rivers and met fellow patientWilfred Owen.[31] Graves was treated here as well. Graves also had shell shock, orneurasthenia as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it,
I thought of going back to France, but realized the absurdity of the notion. Since 1916, the fear of gas obsessed me: any unusual smell, even a sudden strong scent of flowers in a garden, was enough to send me trembling. And I couldn't face the sound of heavy shelling now; the noise of a car back-firing would send me flat on my face, or running for cover.[32]
The friendship between Graves and Sassoon is documented in Graves's letters and biographies. The intensity of their early relationship is demonstrated in Graves's collectionFairies and Fusiliers (1917), which contains many poems celebrating their friendship. Sassoon remarked upon a "heavy sexual element" within it, an observation supported by the sentimental nature of much of the surviving correspondence between the two men. Through Sassoon, Graves became a friend of Wilfred Owen, "who often used to send me poems from France".[33][34]
In September 1917, Graves was seconded for duty with a garrison battalion.[35] Graves's army career ended dramatically with an incident which could have led to a charge ofdesertion. Having been posted toLimerick in late 1918, he "woke up with a sudden chill, which I recognized as the first symptoms ofSpanish influenza." "I decided to make a run for it," he wrote, "I should at least have my influenza in an English, and not an Irish, hospital." Arriving atLondon Waterloo Station with a high fever but without the official papers that would secure his release from the army, he chanced to share a taxi with a demobilisation officer also returning from Ireland, who completed his papers for him with the necessary secret codes.[36]
Immediately after the war, Graves with his wife,Nancy Nicholson had a growing family, but he was financially insecure and weakened physically and mentally:
Very thin, very nervous and with about four years' loss of sleep to make up, I was waiting until I got well enough to go to Oxford on the Government educational grant. I knew that it would be years before I could face anything but a quiet country life. My disabilities were many: I could not use a telephone, I felt sick every time I travelled by train, and to see more than two new people in a single day prevented me from sleeping. I felt ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy, but had sworn on the very day of my demobilization never to be under anyone's orders for the rest of my life. Somehow I must live by writing.[37]
While still an undergraduate he established a grocers shop on the outskirts of Oxford but the business soon failed. He also failed hisBA degree but was exceptionally permitted to take in 1925 aBachelor of Letters by dissertation instead,[43] allowing him to pursue a teaching career.
In 1926, he took up a post as a professor of English Literature atCairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poetLaura Riding, with whom he was having an affair. Graves was later told that one of his pupils at the university had been a youngGamal Abdel Nasser, but this is obviously untrue as Nasser was only eight years old at the time.[44]
He returned to London briefly, where he separated from his wife under highly emotional circumstances (and at one point Riding attempted suicide) before leaving to live with Riding inDeià,Mallorca. There they continued to publishletterpress books under the rubric of theSeizin Press, founded and edited the literary journal,Epilogue and wrote two successful academic books together:A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) andA Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928); both had great influence on modern literary criticism, particularlyNew Criticism.[45]
In 1927, Graves publishedLawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography ofT. E. Lawrence. The autobiographicalGood-Bye to All That (1929, revised by him and republished in 1957) proved a success but cost him many of his friends, notably Siegfried Sassoon. In 1934, he published his most commercially successful work,I, Claudius. Using classical sources (under the advice of classics scholarEirlys Roberts)[46] he constructed a complex and compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperorClaudius, a tale extended in the sequelClaudius the God (1935).I, Claudius received theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1934. Later, in the 1970s, the Claudius books were turned into the very popular television seriesI, Claudius, withSir Derek Jacobi shown in both Britain and United States. Another historical novel by Graves,Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of theByzantine generalBelisarius.
Graves and Riding left Mallorca in 1936 at the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War and in 1939, they moved to the United States, taking lodging inNew Hope, Pennsylvania. Their volatile relationship and eventual breakup were described by Robert's nephewRichard Perceval Graves inRobert Graves: 1927–1940: the Years with Laura, andT. S. Matthews'sJacks or Better (1977). It was also the basis forMiranda Seymour's novelThe Summer of '39 (1998).
After returning to Britain, Graves began a relationship with Beryl Hodge, the wife ofAlan Hodge, his collaborator onThe Long Week-End (1940) andThe Reader Over Your Shoulder (1943; republished in 1947 asThe Use and Abuse of the English Language but subsequently republished several times under its original title). Graves and Beryl (they were not to marry until 1950) lived inGalmpton, Torbay until 1946, when they re-established a home with their three children, inDeià, Mallorca. The house is now a museum. The year 1946 also saw the publication of his historical novelKing Jesus. He publishedThe White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth in 1948; it is a study of the nature of poetic inspiration, interpreted in terms of the classical and Celtic mythology he knew so well.[47] He turned to science fiction withSeven Days in New Crete (1949) and in 1953 he publishedTheNazarene Gospel Restored withJoshua Podro. He also wroteHercules, My Shipmate, published under that name in 1945 (but first published asThe Golden Fleece in 1944).
In 1955, he publishedThe Greek Myths, which retells a large body of Greek myths, each tale followed by extensive commentary drawn from the system ofThe White Goddess. His retellings are well respected; many of his unconventional interpretations and etymologies are dismissed by classicists.[48] Graves, in turn, dismissed the reactions of classical scholars, arguing that they are too specialised and "prose-minded" to interpret "ancient poetic meaning," and that "the few independent thinkers ... [are] the poets, who try to keep civilisation alive."[49]
He published a volume of short stories,¡Catacrok! Mostly Stories, Mostly Funny, in 1956. In 1961, he became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a post he held until 1966.
In 1967, Robert Graves published, together withOmar Ali-Shah, a new translation of theRubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.[50][51] The translation quickly became controversial; Graves was attacked for trying to break the spell of famed passages inEdward FitzGerald's Victorian translation, andL. P. Elwell-Sutton, an orientalist atEdinburgh University, maintained that the manuscript used by Ali-Shah and Graves, which Ali-Shah and his brotherIdries Shah claimed had been in their family for 800 years, was a forgery.[51] The translation was a critical disaster and Graves's reputation suffered severely due to what the public perceived as his gullibility in falling for the Shah brothers' deception.[51][52] It was in 1967 that the first full-length assessment of Graves' work was published.Swifter Than Reason byDouglas Day concentrated on Grave's development as a poet from his earliest work in 1916 to the most recent collection, using Graves' critical writings as commentary.[53]
From the 1960s until his death, Robert Graves frequently exchanged letters withSpike Milligan. Many of their letters to each other are collected in the bookDear Robert, Dear Spike.[55]
Robert Graves wasbisexual, having intense romantic relationships with both men and women, though the word he coined for it was "pseudo-homosexual".[56] Graves was raised to be "prudishly innocent, as my mother had planned I should be."[57] His mother, Amy, forbade speaking about sex, save in a "gruesome" context, and all skin "must be covered."[58] At his days in Penrallt, he had "innocent crushes" on boys; one in particular was a boy named Ronny, who "climbed trees, killed pigeons with a catapult and broke all the school rules while never seeming to get caught."[59][60] At Charterhouse, an all-boys school, it was common for boys to develop "amorous but seldom erotic" relationships, which the headmaster mostly ignored.[61] Graves described boxing with a friend, Raymond Rodakowski, as having a "a lot of sex feeling".[62] And although Graves admitted to loving Raymond, he dismissed it as "more comradely than amorous."[63]
In his fourth year at Charterhouse, Graves met "Dick" (George "Peter" Harcourt Johnstone) with whom he developed "an even stronger relationship".[63] Johnstone was an object of adoration in Graves's early poems. Graves's feelings for Johnstone were exploited by bullies, who led Graves to believe that Johnstone was seen kissing the choir-master. Graves, jealous, demanded the choir-master's resignation.[64] During the First World War, Johnstone remained a "solace" to Graves. Despite Graves's own "pure and innocent" view of Johnstone, Graves's cousin Gerald wrote in a letter that Johnstone was: "not at all the innocent fellow I took him for, but as bad as anyone could be".[65] Johnstone remained a subject for Graves's poems despite this. Communication between them ended when Johnstone's mother found their letters and forbade further contact with Graves.[66] Johnstone was later arrested for attempting to seduce a Canadian soldier, which removed Graves's denial about Johnstone's infidelity, causing Graves to collapse.[67]
In 1917, Graves met Marjorie Machin, an auxiliary nurse from Kent. He admired her "direct manner and practical approach to life". Graves did not pursue the relationship when he realised Machin had a fiancé on the Front.[68] This began a period where Graves began to be interested in women with more masculine traits.[68] Nancy Nicholson, his future wife, was an ardent feminist: she kept her hair short, wore trousers, and had "boyish directness and youth."[69] Her feminism never conflicted with Graves's own ideas of female superiority.[70] Siegfried Sassoon, who felt as if Graves and he had a relationship of a sort, felt betrayed by Graves's new relationship and declined to go to the wedding.[71] Graves apparently never loved Sassoon in the same way that Sassoon loved Graves.[72]
Graves's and Nicholson's marriage was strained, Graves living with "shell shock", and having an insatiable need for sex, which Nicholson did not reciprocate.[73] Nancy forbade any mention of the war, which added to the conflict.[74] In 1926, he metLaura Riding, with whom he ran away in 1929 while still married to Nicholson. Prior to this, Graves, Riding and Nicholson adopted atriadic relationship they called "The Trinity". Despite the implications, Riding and Nicholson were most likely heterosexual.[75] This triangle became the "Holy Circle" with the addition of Irish poetGeoffrey Phibbs, who himself was still married to Irish artistNorah McGuinness.[76] This relationship revolved around the worship and reverence of Riding. Graves and Phibbs were both to sleep with Riding.[77] When Phibbs attempted to leave the relationship, Graves was sent to track him down, even threatening to kill Phibbs if he did not return to the circle.[78] When Phibbs resisted, Riding threw herself out of a window, Graves following suit to reach her.[79][clarification needed] Graves's commitment to Riding was so strong that he entered, on her word, a period of enforced celibacy, "which he had not enjoyed".[80]
By 1938, no longer entranced by Riding, Graves fell in love with the then-married Beryl Hodge. In 1950, after much dispute with Nicholson (whom he had not divorced yet), he married Beryl.[81] Despite having a loving marriage with Beryl, Graves would take on a 17-year-old muse, Judith Bledsoe, in 1950.[82] Although the relationship was described as "not overtly sexual", in 1952 Graves attacked Judith's new fiancé, getting the police called on him in the process.[83] He later had three successive female muses, who came to dominate his poetry.[84]
During the early 1970s, Graves began to experience increasingly severememory loss. By his 80th birthday in 1975, he had come to the end of his working life. He died of heart failure on 7 December 1985 at the age of 90 years. His body was buried the next morning in the small churchyard on a hill atDeià, at the site of a shrine that had once been sacred tothe White Goddess ofPelion.[3] His second wife, Beryl Graves, died on 27 October 2003 and her body was interred in the same cemetery, few stapes on left.[85]
On 11 November 1985, Graves was among sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled inWestminster Abbey'sPoets' Corner.[89] The inscription on the stone was taken fromWilfred Owen's "Preface" to his poems and reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."[90] Of the 16 poets, Graves was the only one still living at the time of the commemoration ceremony, though he would die less than a month later.
Graves had eight children. With his first wife, Nancy Nicholson (1899–1977), he had Jennie (who married journalistAlexander Clifford), David (who was killed in the Second World War), Catherine (who married nuclear scientistClifford Dalton atAldershot), and Sam. With his second wife, Beryl Pritchard Hodge (1915–2003), he had William (author of the well-received memoirWild Olives: Life on Majorca with Robert Graves),Lucia (a translator and author whose versions of novels byCarlos Ruiz Zafón have been quite successful commercially), Juan (addressed in one of Robert Graves' most famous and critically praised poems, "To Juan at the Winter Solstice"), and Tomás (a writer and musician).[91]
UK government documents released in 2012 indicate that Graves turned down aCBE in 1957.[92] In 2012, the Nobel Records were opened after 50 years, and it was revealed that Graves was among a shortlist of authors considered for the 1962Nobel Prize in Literature, along withJohn Steinbeck (who was that year's recipient of the prize),Lawrence Durrell,Jean Anouilh andKaren Blixen.[93] Graves was rejected because, even though he had written several historical novels, he was still primarily seen as a poet, and committee memberHenry Olsson was reluctant to award any Anglo-Saxon poet the prize before the death ofEzra Pound, believing that other writers did not match his talent.[93] UK government documents released in 2023 reveal that in 1967 Graves was considered for, but then passed over for, the post ofPoet Laureate.[94]
No Decency Left. (with Laura Riding) (as Barbara Rich). London: Jonathan Cape, 1932.
The Real David Copperfield. London: Arthur Barker, 1933; asDavid Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, Condensed by Robert Graves, ed. M. P. Paine. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1934.
I, Claudius. London: Arthur Barker, 1934; New York: Smith & Haas, 1934.
On English Poetry. New York: Alfred. A. Knopf, 1922; London: Heinemann, 1922.
The Meaning of Dreams. London: Cecil Palmer, 1924; New York: Greenberg, 1925.
Poetic Unreason and Other Studies. London: Cecil Palmer, 1925.
Contemporary Techniques of Poetry: A Political Analogy. London: Hogarth Press, 1925.
John Kemp's Wager: A Ballad Opera. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1925.
Another Future of Poetry. London: Hogarth Press, 1926.
Impenetrability or the Proper Habit of English. London: Hogarth Press, 1927.
The English Ballad: A Short Critical Survey. London: Ernest Benn, 1927; revised asEnglish and Scottish Ballads. London:William Heinemann, 1957; New York: Macmillan, 1957.
Lars Porsena or the Future of Swearing and Improper Language. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927; E. P. Dutton, New York, 1927; revised asThe Future of Swearing and Improper Language. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1936.
A Survey of Modernist Poetry (with Laura Riding). London: William Heinemann, 1927; New York: Doubleday, 1928.
Lawrence and the Arabs. London: Jonathan Cape, 1927; as Lawrence and the Arabian Adventure. New York: Doubleday, 1928.
A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (with Laura Riding). London: Jonathan Cape, 1928; asAgainst Anthologies. New York: Doubleday, 1928.
Mrs. Fisher or the Future of Humour. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1928.
Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography. London: Jonathan Cape, 1929; New York: Jonathan Cape and Smith, 1930; rev., New York: Doubleday, 1957; London: Cassell, 1957; Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1960.
But It Still Goes On: An Accumulation. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930; New York: Jonathan Cape and Smith, 1931.
T. E. Lawrence to His Biographer Robert Graves. New York: Doubleday, 1938; London: Faber & Faber, 1939.
The Long Weekend (with Alan Hodge). London: Faber & Faber, 1940; New York: Macmillan, 1941.
The Reader Over Your Shoulder (with Alan Hodge). London: Jonathan Cape, 1943; New York: Macmillan, 1943; New York, Seven Stories Press, 2017.
The White Goddess. London: Faber & Faber, 1948; New York: Creative Age Press, 1948; rev., London: Faber & Faber, 1952, 1961; New York: Alfred. A. Knopf, 1958.
^"No. 1,594, 1895 Sep. 1st, Robert Ranke born July 24 1895 / Alfred Percival & Amalie Sophie Elizabeth Graves, Wimbledon" inBaptisms solemnized in the Parish of Wimbledon in the County of Surrey,p. 200, accessed 7 January 2026(subscription required)
^Charterhouse Register 1872—1910 (London: The Chiswick Press, 1911),p. 827
^The London Gazette, 22 September 1914, Issue 28910,p. 7490: "The undermentioned to be Second Lieutenants, on probation:— Dated 15 August 1914... Robert von Ranke Graves, 3rd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers."
^The London Gazette, 9 March 1915, Issue 29094,p. 2376
^"No 21, Twenty-third January 1918, Robert Ranke Graves, Annie Mary Prydie Nicholson",Marriages Solemnized at the Parish Church in the Parish of St James's, Westminster, in the County of London,p. 11, accessed 7 January 2026(subscription required)
^"In addition, between 1919 and 1924 Nancy gave birth to four children in under five years; while Graves (now an atheist like his wife) suffered from recurring bouts of shell-shock." Richard Perceval Graves, 'Graves, Robert von Ranke (1895–1985)',Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 2006[1] (accessed 1 May 2008).
^Sillery, A.; Sillery, V. (1975).St. John's College Biographical Register 1919-1975. Vol. 3. Oxford: St. John’s College. p. 42.
^Robert Graves (1998).Good-Bye to All That. New York: Doubleday. p. 346.
^Childs, Donald J (2014).The Birth of New Criticism: Conflict and Conciliation in the Early Work of William Empson, I.A. Richards, Robert Graves, and Laura Riding. McGill-Queen's University Press.OCLC941601073.
^"[it] makes attractive reading and conveys much solid information, but should be approached with extreme caution nonetheless". (Robin Hard, H. J. Rose,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, p. 690.ISBN0-415-18636-6.) SeeThe Greek Myths
Seymour, Miranda (1995).Robert Graves: Life on the Edge, London: Doubleday.ISBN0-385-40860-9.
Day, Douglas (1968).Swifter than Reason: The Poetry of Robert Graves. University of North Carolina Press. The first full-length assessment of the poetry and criticism of Graves.
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