Robert von Ranke Graves (1895-1985), born in Wimbledon, received his early education at King’s College School and Copthorne Prep School, Wimbledon & Charterhouse School and won a scholarship to St John’s College, Oxford. While at Charterhouse in 1912, he fell in love with G.H. Johnstone, a boy of fourteen (“Dick” in Goodbye to All That) When challenged by the headmaster he defended himself by citing Plato, Greek poets, Michelangelo & Shakespeare, “who had felt as I did”.
At the outbreak of WWI, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. 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 his experience of front-line conflict. In later years he omitted war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously “part of the war poetry boom”. At the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and indeed was officially reported as ‘died of wounds’. He gradually recovered. Apart from a brief spell back in France, he spent the rest of the war in England.
Books in order of publication:
Over the Brazier. London: The Poetry Bookshop, 1916; New York: Alfred. A. Knopf, 1923.
Goliath and David. London: Chiswick Press, 1916.
Country Sentiment, London: Martin Secker, 1920; New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1920
The Feather Bed. Richmond, Surrey: Hogarth Press, 1923.
Mock Beggar Hall. London: Hogarth Press, 1924.
Welchmans Hose. London: The Fleuron, 1925.
Poems. London: Ernest Benn, 1925.
The Marmosites Miscellany (as John Doyle). London: Hogarth Press, 1925.
Poems (1914–1926). London: William Heinemann, 1927; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1929.
Poems (1926–1930). London: William Heinemann
To Whom Else? Deyá, Majorca: Seizin Press, 1931.
Poems 1930–1933. London: Arthur Barker, 1933.
Collected Poems. London: Cassell, 1938; New York: Random House, 1938.
No More Ghosts: Selected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 1940.
Work in Hand, with Norman Cameron and Alan Hodge. London: Hogarth Press, 1942.
Poems. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1943.
Poems 1938–1945. London: Cassell, 1945; New York: Creative Age Press, 1946.
Collected Poems (1914–1947). London: Cassell, 1948.
Poems and Satires. London: Cassell, 1951.
Poems 1953. London: Cassell, 1953.
Collected Poems 1955. New York: Doubleday, 1955.
Poems Selected by Himself. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957; rev. 1961, 1966, 1972, 1978.
The Poems of Robert Graves. New York: Doubleday, 1958.
Collected Poems 1959. London: Cassell, 1959.
The Penny Fiddle: Poems for Children. London: Cassell, 1960; New York: Doubleday, 1961.
More Poems 1961. London: Cassell, 1961.
Collected Poems. New York: Doubleday, 1961.
New Poems 1962. London: Cassell, 1962; as New Poems. New York: Doubleday, 1963.
The More Deserving Cases: Eighteen Old Poems for Reconsideration. Marlborough College Press, 1962.
Man Does, Woman Is. London: Cassell, 1964/New York: Doubleday, 1964.
Ann at Highwood Hall: Poems for Children. London: Cassell, 1964; New York: Triangle Square, 2017.
Love Respelt. London: Cassell, 1965/New York: Doubleday, 1966.
Collected Poems, 1965. London: Cassell, 1965.
Seventeen Poems Missing from “Love Respelt”. privately printed, 1966.
Colophon to “Love Respelt”. Privately printed, 1967.
Poems 1965–1968. London: Cassell, 1968; New York: Doubleday, 1969.
Poems About Love. London: Cassell, 1969; New York: Doubleday, 1969.
Love Respelt Again. New York: Doubleday, 1969.
Beyond Giving. privately printed, 1969.
Poems 1968–1970. London: Cassell, 1970; New York: Doubleday, 1971.
The Green-Sailed Vessel. privately printed, 1971.
Poems: Abridged for Dolls and Princes. London: Cassell, 1971.
Poems 1970–1972. London: Cassell, 1972; New York: Doubleday, 1973.
Deyá, A Portfolio. London: Motif Editions, 1972.
Timeless Meeting: Poems. privately printed, 1973.
At the Gate. privately printed, London, 1974.
Collected Poems 1975. London: Cassell, 1975.
New Collected Poems. New York: Doubleday, 1977.
Selected Poems, ed.g. Paul O’Prey. London: Penguin, 1986
The Centenary Selected Poems, ed. Patrick Quinn. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1995.
Complete Poems Volume 1, ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1995.
Complete Poems Volume 2, ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1996.
Complete Poems Volume 3, ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1999.
The Complete Poems in One Volume, ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward. Manchester: Penguin Books, 2004.
Selected Poems, ed. Michael Longley. Faber & Faber, 2012.
Fiction
My Head! My Head!. London: Secker, 1925; Alfred. A. Knopf, New York, 1925.
The Shout. London: Mathews & Marrot, 1929.
No Decency Left. (with Laura Riding) (as Barbara Rich). London: Jonathan Cape, 1932.
The Real David Copperfield. London: Arthur Barker, 1933; as David 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.
Sequel: Claudius the God and his Wife Messalina. London: Arthur Barker, 1934; New York: Smith & Haas, 1935.
Antigua, Penny, Puce. Deyá, Majorca/London: Seizin Press/Constable, 1936; New York: Random House, 1937.
Count Belisarius. London: Cassell, 1938: Random House, New York, 1938.
Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth. London: Methuen, 1940; as Sergeant Lamb’s America. New York: Random House, 1940.
Sequel: Proceed, Sergeant Lamb. London: Methuen, 1941; New York: Random House, 1941.
The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton. London: Cassell, 1943; as Wife to Mr Milton: The Story of Marie Powell. New York: Creative Age Press, 1944.
The Golden Fleece. London: Cassell, 1944; as Hercules, My Shipmate, New York: Creative Age Press, 1945; New York: Seven Stories Press, 2017.
King Jesus. New York: Creative Age Press, 1946; London: Cassell, 1946.
Watch the North Wind Rise. New York: Creative Age Press, 1949; as Seven Days in New Crete. London: Cassell, 1949.
The Islands of Unwisdom. New York: Doubleday, 1949; as The Isles of Unwisdom. London: Cassell, 1950.
Homer’s Daughter. London: Cassell, 1955; New York: Doubleday, 1955; New York: Seven Stories Press, 2017.
Catacrok! Mostly Stories, Mostly Funny. London: Cassell, 1956.
They Hanged My Saintly Billy. London: Cassell, 1957; New York: Doubleday, 1957; New York, Seven Stories Press, 2017.
Collected Short Stories. Doubleday: New York, 1964; Cassell, London, 1965.
An Ancient Castle. London: Peter Owen, 1980.
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