by Robert Graves

Born in Wimbledon, England, in 1895, Robert Graves was the son of a schoolmaster who was also a poet and songwriter. Graves attended Charterhouse, a British public school (the equivalent of an American private school). He grew, in his school years, increasingly committed to becoming a poet. When World War I broke out (1914), Graves joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers; seriously wounded in 1916, he was initially left for dead. That same year saw the publication of his first book of poems, Over the Brazier. After a lengthy recovery, during which Graves, like many of his comrades, suffered nightmares and shattered nerves, he returned to garrison duty in Wales until the last year of the war, 1918. Grave subsequently studied at St. John’s College, Oxford, meanwhile continuing to write poetry. In 1926 he met the American poet, Laura Riding, with whom he founded the Seizin Press; in...