OCTOBER 1935

October sees much planning and replanting of the garden. Gelat gives advice about removing olive trees. He and Graves also discuss details about the water rights dispute and Gelat's new café. Work on the new spring does not yield many results, but Gelat and Graves find a more promising spring higher up. The building of the new shed continues, and renovations to the Posada are almost complete. Graves spends many afternoons on the beach with Solomon1 before "two-blanket weather" sets in.
The cooler weather is accompanied by warm food and wine: Graves and Riding hire a new cook, and also spend an evening with Schwarz and Strenge: "candles, fire in grate, zinnias, German hors d'oeuvres, & then a young turkey, Rioja Alta wine, all the various accompaniments of turkey - also caraway-cheese a Hartz cheese I had never tasted before." Schwarz and Strenge give Riding "a beautiful emerald-matrix silver-gilt ring, in an old shagreen ring-box."
Amy Graves writes with the news that Sam will be attending Folkestone, a school for the deaf,2 and that Jenny is expecting her first dancing engagement. David writes as well, giving "sensible reasons for wanting to go to Cambridge: Oxford depressed him." Riding and Graves invite James Reeves to visit.
Graves continues reworking Almost Forgotten Times (Almost Forgotten Germany) and going over Old Soldier Sahib corrections (Harrison Smith sends an advance). The Epilogue proofs are finally completed and sent off - "a difficult job, finding original French quotations" - and Graves corresponds with Korda about Fool of Rome and with Kegan Paul about Lars Porsena. Graves also reworks his "Historical Particulars", "Moments in Never" (now called "Proof of Royalty") and "Address to Customers" ("Receipt for Moneys").
Riding continues to plod through A Trojan Ending, and Graves helps her with research on schools3 for the Subjects of Knowledge series. She is also working on her poem "Decline of Prophecy." Together she and Graves "answer W. B. Yeats' anthology request ... & his threat to come to Mallorca this year."

Editorial Notes

1Graves' bull-dog. eds.
2Sam has a hearing impairment. eds.
3 Schools eds.

Hands Referenced

Places Mentioned

  • Posada, La

    Deyá, Majorca, Sp
    House on the Puig next to Deyá church. Originally part of the Es Molí property. It had been rented by the church for Sunday school. RG and LR bought it in February, 1935, to use as a guest house for their visitors. WG, eds.

  • Majorca/ Mallorca

    Majorca, Sp
    Largest of the Balearic Islands, located in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of Spain. R.G. and L.R. lived there, in Deyá, from 1929-1936. eds

People Mentioned

  • Gelat

    Más, Juan Marroig
    Juan Marroig Mas, called Gelat: Landowner on Deyá and friend of Robert Graves and Laura Riding (L.R. & R.G.'s factotum. W.G.)

  • Robert

    Graves, Robert
    [1st person]. (1895-1985). Poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and author of his diary. eds.

  • Laura

    Riding, Laura
    (1901-91) American poet. Laura Riding (née Reichenthal; then Laura Gottschalk).

  • Swartz

    Schwarz, Georg
    German Jew. Deyá neighbour. Antique dealer. Lived with Frau Emmy Strenge, his house keeper, in Can Caballo some hundred yards from Canellun. RG and LR translated his "Almost Forgotten Germany." WG

  • Strenge

    Strenge, Frau Emmi
    Schwarz's house keeper and ? mistress. WG

  • A.G. (A.E.S.G)

    Graves, Amy
    Amy Graves, RG's Mother. WG

  • Sam

    Graves, Samuel
    R.G.'s youngest child by Nancy Nicholson. C.P.& WG

  • Jenny

    Nicholson, Jenny
    Jenny Nicholson: oldest daughter of Robert by Nancy Nicholson.

  • David

    Graves, David
    R.G.'s second child [by Nancy Nicholson]. W.G. In RAF; killed in the war. The only one of Graves' children who might have become a poet had he lived. K.G., eds.

  • James

    Reeves, James
    Schoolmaster, writer and Poet. Friend of Jacob Bronowski. W.G./ K.G.; m. to Mary Phillips; daughter Stella born June 14, 1938 eds.

  • Korda

    Korda, Alexander
    Director of the film version of I Claudius.

  • Yeats

    Yeats, William Butler
    (1865-1939) Major Irish poet. eds. Was on the island of Majorca December 1935. WG
  • Graves, William
    Son of Robert and Beryl Graves. Helped to identify names, places and titles in Deya (1935-1936) and with translations and other references in three ways. He left an annotated printout of the first six months of the diary in the Graves Trust Room at St. John's College, Oxford. He also sent Chris Petter an Excel file with a list identifying names and places, principally in the Majorcan sections of the diary, and a glossary of Spanish terms. Finally he has sent the editors answers in response to reference questions. Notes by William Graves are identified with the initials WG.

Organizations Mentioned

  • Harrison Smith and Robert Haas

    R.G.'s American publisher for I, Claudius and Claudius the God. eds.

  • Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.

    Publisher of R.G.'s Lars Porsena (1927) W.G. Also the 2nd revised edition, 1936. eds.

  • Editors

    Editors of the Graves Diary Project.

Bibliography

    • Title: Almost Forgotten Germany [Almost Forgotten Times]
    • Author: Schwarz, Georg
    • Editor: Trans. Graves, Robert/ Riding, Laura
    • PubPlace: Deyá & London
    • Publisher: Seizin & Constable
    • Idno: A45
    • Date: 1936
    • Title: Old Soldier Sahib
    • Author: Richards, Frank
    • Editor: Graves, Robert
    • PubPlace: London, New York
    • Publisher: Faber & Faber; Harrison Smith & Robert Haas
    • Idno: A44
    • Date: 1936
    • Title: Epilogue I: A Critical Summary
    • Editor: Riding. Laura/ Graves, Robert
    • PubPlace: Deyá & London
    • Publisher: Seizin & Constable
    • Idno: B22
    • Date: 1935
    • Title: Fool of Rome, The [Claudius Film Version]
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • Title: Lars Porsena or The Future of Swearing and Improper Language [2nd rev. edition]
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • PubPlace: London
    • Publisher: Kegan Paul
    • Idno: A21c
    • Date: 1936
    • Title: Historical Particulars [poem: formerly What Then?]
    • Title: Robert Graves: Complete Poems Vol. III
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • Editor: Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward
    • PubPlace: Manchester
    • Publisher: Carcanet Press
    • BiblScope: pp. 404-05, 555 (note)
    • Date: 1995-1999
    • Title: Moments in Never [poem; later Proofs of Royalty; published as Fragment of a Lost Poem]
    • Title: Robert Graves: Complete Poems Vol. II
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • Editor: Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward
    • PubPlace: Manchester
    • Publisher: Carcanet Press
    • BiblScope: pp. 86, 313 (note).
    • Date: 1995-1999
    • Title: Receipt for Moneys [poem: also called Address to Customers. Was "scrapped" see diary Apr. 3, 1936]
    • Author: Graves, Robert
    • Title: Trojan Ending, A [novel]
    • Author: Riding, Laura
    • PubPlace: Deyá & London
    • Publisher: Seizin & Constable
    • Date: 1937
    • Title: Schools [an international survey of education]
    • Author: Graves, Robert; Riding, Laura
    • Editor: Riding, Laura
    • Title: Subjects of Knowledge [unpublished]
    • Author: Riding, Laura, Graves, Robert, et al
    • Editor: Riding, Laura
    • Date: 1935
    • Title: Decline of Prophecy [poem]
    • Title: Collected Poems
    • Author: Riding, Laura
    • PubPlace: London, Toronto, Melbourne & Sydney
    • Publisher: Cassell and Company Limited
    • Idno: A35 [Wexler]
    • Date: 1938