Graves, Robert

Graves, Robert (von Ranke)

(born July 24/26, 1895, London, Eng.—died Dec. 7, 1985, Deyá, Majorca, Spain) British man of letters. He served as an officer at the Western Front during World War I and his first three volumes of poetry were published during that time; they include some of the finest English love poems of the century. In 1926 he began a 13-year relationship with the American poet Laura Riding (1901–91), with whom he founded a press, briefly published a journal, and collaborated as a writer. After 1929 he lived principally in Majorca, Spain. The most famous of his more than 120 books are Good-bye to All That (1929), a grim memoir of the war; the historical novel I, Claudius (1934; televised in 1976); and erudite, controversial studies in mythology, notably The White Goddess (1948).