Reference Notes

 Sources Cited

A) Unpublished

AUTHOR = The vast collection of family papers built up by Robert Graves's brother John Graves (1903-1980) and now owned by John's son Richard, the present author (RPG). This collection has never been worked over before, except by John Graves (JTRG) who made use of some items for his unpublished biography 'My Brother Robert'.

 DIARY = The 1911-1931 Diaries of Robert's father Alfred Perceval Graves (1846-1931), now owned by John's son Richard, the present author. This collection has never been worked over before, except by John Graves (JTRG) who made use of some items for his incomplete and unpublished biography My Brother Robert.

IRWIN = A typed transcript by James Reeves of letters from RG to James Reeves, now owned by James's daughter Stella Irwin.

MAJORCA = The collection of family papers held by Robert Graves's widow Beryl Graves at her house in Deya. These were studied previously by Martin Seymour-Smith for his biography.

MATTHEWS-PC = From the private collection of Robert Graves's friend T.S. Matthews.

B) Published

GTAT29 = Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That (Jonathan Cape 1929). I have quoted from this version wherever possible. The prose may not always be as polished as in the revised edition of 1957, but Robert's stylistic revisions were so extensive that, taken together with numerous excisions, they often make a considerable difference to the flavour and tone of what can only be described, in its original form, as a work of blazing genius. In any case the original account must usually be preferred as a document which is more contemporary with the events which it describes.

 MS-S = Martin Seymour-Smith, Robert Graves: His Life and Works (Hutchinson 1982)

 O'PREY(1) = Ed. Paul O'Prey, In Broken Images: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1914-1946 (Hutchinson 1982)

O'PREY(2) = Ed. Paul O'Prey, Between Moon and Moon: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1946-1972 (Hutchinson 1984)

 SASSOON (1) = Ed. Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1915-1918 (Faber & Faber 1983)

TAH = Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves:The Assault Heroic 1895-1926 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1987)

1) Notes for 'Saving Sassoon'

 MS-S p. 570 correctly states that 'Sassoon's version differs from R.G.'s' and then asserts, 'It is now impossible to sort out the true sequence of events. Probably Sassoon's is more accurate', but with the new evidence which has become available we can at least make a try. Here is a summary of the main events, in the order in which they appear in GTAT29, together with evidence about the dates on which they actually occurred.

(I) RG receives press cutting. This was not published until 27 July 1917 (GTAT29 p. 319).

(2) RG leaves Osbome. He left on l6 July (DIARY 16 July).

(3) RG writes to Evan Morgan. MS-S p. 58 quotes from this letter. From internal evidence (MS-S gives us neither date nor provenance for the letter) it was written after Sassoon arrived at Craiglockhart, which he did between 19 July (the day after RG arrived at Litherland [SASSOON(I) p. 182J) and 24 July (the day when Sassoon 'had great fun' on RG's birthday [SASSOON(I) p. 183]).

(4) RG writes to the C.O. He had received a reply before 17 July on the evidence of Robert Ross (SASSOON(I) pp. 181-2).

(5) RG receives letter from Sassoon. The dating is uncertain, but it was not written until the night of the 15th (SASSOON(I) p. 181) and so could hardly have reached RG before he left Osbome on the morning of l6 July (see 2 above).

(6) Morgan persuades the War Office to give Sassoon a Medical Board. In the light of the evidence at 3 above, this must be considered fictional.

(7) RG persuades Sassoon to go before a Medical Board. This must have been at some time between the date on which RG set out for Litherland (Wednesday 18 July, see SASSOON(I) p. 182) and the date on which RG writes in triumph to Eddie Marsh (Thursday 19 July, see O'PREY(I) p. 79).

So the real order of events now appears to be 4, 2, 7, 3, 1. The dating of 5 is uncertain (but probably just before or just after 7) and 6 never happened.

The waters are muddied a little by the fact that in Sassoon's semi-fictional account, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, his dating of the first few days appears to be accurate; but then he draws out the story so that it is not until Sunday (22nd) that Robert sees him - when all had been settled by the evening of the 19th. Perhaps this was simply a fictional device; or perhaps a few days seemed to him like many in his disturbed mental condition.

255 SASSOON(I) 19 July 1917 Ross to Gosse pp. 181-2 confirms the date that he passed through London as Thursday 12 July; and Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, p. 230 describes the receipt of a telegram saying 'Report immediately' on a Thursday.

256 Ibid. Sassoon had spent Thursday night in Ross's rooms in London

257 GTAT29 p. 323; see also SASSOON(I) pp.181-2

258 GTAT29 p. 324

259 SASSOON(I) p. 182. It seems reasonable to assume that RG knew of this, and it ties in with Sassoon's account in 260 below.

260 Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, p. 242

261 GTAT29 pp. 324-5. R G's claim to have 'rigged' the Medical Board seems excessive. The authorities had been wanting to find Sassoon out of his mind for days.

262 O'PREY(I) RG to Eddie Marsh 19 July 1917, p. 79

263 SASSOON(I) p. 212. The other officer was S.W. Harper

264 Ibid. Sassoon to Ross 26 July 1917 p. 183

265 O'PREY(I) RG to Sassoon 31 July 1917 p.80

2) Notes for 'The Shout'

38.   Laura Riding and George Ellidge, 14(A) (Arthur Barker 1934) p.137.:p>

39.nbsp;  GTAT29 pp.446-7 gives an account of this journey; also RG’s ‘Return Fare’ in his Poems 1926-1930 (William Heinemann 1931) pp. 80-1, concluding: ‘And so I found the place near Sligo, not the place / So back to England on the Easter Thursday.’ It appears he was back in London on 4 April 1929, and left the next day for France with Laura and Nancy.

40.   As note 22 above. [MATTHEWS-PC Norah McGuiness to T.S.Matthews 6 March 1978

41.    MS-S p.163; confirmed by AUTHOR Mary Taylor to RPG n.d. ‘I particularly remember [Geoffrey] telling me that when [he and Norah] were together & alone again how absolutely impossible it had become for him.’

42.    MS-S p. 162 suggests that this letter did not arrive until their return from France.

43.     As note 22 [40] above.

44.     Ibid.

45.     Ibid.

46.     Ibid.

47.    Ibid.

48.     GTAT29 p. 447.

49.     Ibid. DIARY Sunday 7 April 1929. DIARY entries for the next few days show that RG was invited to supper on II April, and ‘said he’d try to come ...but failed to do so being in a very broken down state’. The next day he ‘again failed to turn up’; and on 15 April, back at Erinfa, APG and Amy received a package in which RG returned his Great-Uncle Robert Perceval Graves’s ring, saying that he no longer wished to wear it.

50.     As note 22 [40] above.

51.     MS-S pp. 163-4.

52.     As 22 above.

53.    MS-S pp. 163-4.

54.     As note 22 [40] above.

55.     Ibid.

56.     MS-S p, 165.

57.     As note 22 [40] above.

58.     GTAT29p. 447.

59.     As note 22 [40] above.

60.     WEXLER p. 53 has: ‘Laura remembered a moment of extreme clarity, when she looked into each of them and realised not one truly shared her concerns...[she was] feeling utterly alone.' And ibid. p.54 notes that L.R. had written in 'Free' in 1926 of death as an escape route from a merely unpleasant life. AUTHOR MT to RPG 16 December 1986 comments: 'The account I had from G. was that Laura, when she was on the window sill, threatened to jump out if Geoffrey wd. not remain with her... seeing this as emotional blackmail & not expecting Laura to actually do it, Geoffrey refused. I certainly received the impression from Geoffrey that this was the moment of truth when he made it clear to Laura that he cd. no longer accept her domination.'

61.    GTAT29 p.447

62.    As note 38 above, p.271.

63.    Taken from 'The Terraced Valley' in Robert Graves, Poems 1926-1930 (as note 39 above)pp.86-7

3) Notes for 'Wife to Mr. Milton'

134.   [As note 2. above] BG in conv. with RPG Dec. 1993

135.   O'PREY(1) p.302 RG to Basil Liddell-Hart 16 July 1941.

136.   TAH p.242

137.    MAJORCA Margaret Russell to RG 23 July 1941

138.    MAJORCA Tom Matthews to RG 8 Sept. 1941

139.    O'PREY(1) pp.303-304

140.    O'PREY(1) p.304 Alun Lewis to RG 4 Nov. 1941

141.     O'PREY(1)pp.305-6 RG to Alun Lewis 6 Nov. 1941

142.    MAJORCA David Graves to RG 6 Nov. 1941

143.    MAJORCA Sam Graves to RG 16 Nov. 1941

144.    Kiss the Girls Goodbye pp.56-8

145.     Mrs Maureen Pilling to RPG 17 Dec. 1986.

146.     MAJORCA David Graves in Yorkshire to RG Nov.n.d. (1941).

147.     MAJORCA David Graves in Lincoln to RG 2 Dec. 1941.

148.     148 O'PREY (1) pp. 306-7 Alun Lewis to RG 15 Nov. 1941.

149.     O'PREY (1) pp. 307-8 RG to Alun Lewis 15 Nov. 1941.

150.      RG is referring to research for Laura Riding's book Lives of Wives (Cassell 1939).

151.     O'PREY (1) p. 309 RG to AH 8 Nov. 1941.

152.     Sir Walter Raleigh, Milton (Edward Arnold, 14th Impression) pp. 29-33 (orig. edn 1900).

153.     RG, On English Poetry

154.     Ibid. pp. 30, 124.

155.     RG. Wife to Mr .Milton p. 176.

156.     MATTHEWS p. 239.

157.     RG, Wife to Mr.Milton. p.147.

158.      Ibid.p.177.

159.     Ibid.p.175.

160.     Ibid.p. 270.

161.      Ibid. pp. 291-2.

162.      Ibid. pp. 239-40. Incidentally, [MS-S p. 379 ridicules Matthews's idea on the grounds: i) that he respected Milton's gifts too much; and ii) that 'Besides, he had forgotten Jackson.' The first is a legitimate point of view; but the second is clearly nonsensical, since RG had only just received a letter from Matthews on the subject of Riding and Jackson.

163.     O'PREY (I) p. 299 RG to AH 20 March 1941.

164.      It seems that Anne Powell was entitled to her 'widow's thirds' on some property at Whatly which had belonged to her husband, and which on his death had passed into John Milton's possession; but when in the mid-1640s a fine of £180 was attached to the property (on the grounds that it had belonged to a Royalist sympathizer), Milton could not continue paying the thirds (£26-13-4d p.a.) without the property becoming an absolute liability. So he refused to do so, especially as the Powells still owed him Marie's agreed dowry or 'marriage-portion' of £1,000.

165.      O'PREY (2) p. 196 RG to Tom Matthews 22 April 1960.

166.     MAJORCA Eddie Marsh to RG 22 Feb. 1943.

167.     Richard Hughes,The Wooden Shepherdess (Chatto & Windus 1973) p.387

168.     On English Poetry pp.134-7.

169.      Ibid.

170.      IRWIN James Reeves to RG 18 Dec. 1941