SEPTEMBER 1938

September at the castle: "Autumn beginning: apples dominate landscape." The well is beginning to run dry with end-of-summer heat. When not working, the friends spend their days picking mushrooms and horse chestnuts. Walnuts are beginning to ripen on the tree outside the kitchen. Anita sends a parcel of specialty foods from Deyá (which produces a wave of nostalgia in Graves, who "nearly cries from homesickness"). Léonie, who replaces the fired cook Modeste, is an immediate success.
But the last warmth of summer and the bounty of an autumn harvest are overshadowed by a growing international unrest. The Nuremberg congress has all Europe talking of war. Writes Graves, "The news of the Anglo-French surrender becomes more & more depressing and shameful. For the last week all the letters have been about fear of war. We are glad to be away from London." Another entry states, "There is panic in England: even Len Lye writes that H [Hitler] is like the American madman who balanced 14 hrs. on a window ledge - and then had to jump so as not to disappoint his audience." But though they are dismayed by the growing tension, Riding and Graves still maintain that there will be no war. Other stories from abroad are more amusing: "J [Juan] del Moli who had talked of whipping Castañer for his political views was in the same cell - & became great friends."
News from friends is also disconcerting. Norman's wedding day is 3 September: "God help him!" Honor writes from the hospital (she had a miscarriage in August). John Lucy writes as well - to let Riding and Graves know that "The psychologists say he isn't mad, but madly jealous - and the cure would be for Mary to sleep with him again."
In work, Graves finishes going over the proofs of his Collected Poems (back from the publisher), and adds a new poem - "The Fallen Sign Post," drafted the previous month. He also continues on the Dictionary with Riding and Hodge, and tackles Greeks and Trojans again.
Riding's Collected Poems is published this month. She completes her review of the proofs of The World and Ourselves with the help of Graves and Hodge, and Graves helps write a blurb for the book. She continues work on "Aristotle" for Lives of Wives, and takes up The Swiss Ghost once more. She also drafts a new poem, "To the Casuists of Fame." She finishes a section of David Reeves' Furniture with the intention of showing it to literary agent Watt.
There are four enclosures this month:
  • 1. "Rules for the game Cambelpuk," handwritten by Graves
  • 2. Letter to Riding from Margaret Russell
  • 3. Postcard to Riding and Graves, written by Honor Wyatt, as dictated by her son Julian
  • 4. "Rappel Immediat": French call-up announcement