July 18 Sunday

Got up & helped Harry with washing-up, and prepared the stove-fire and put in the roast. But was then driven back to bed with intense toothache & neuralgia: the toothache apparently from a tooth behind the one Trace has been attending to.
Aspirins, hot bottle1; gravy on bread for lunch.
Managed to write 4 pp [pages] of Ghost before it got too bad.
Mr. Trace consented to see me at 5. Found an abscess under the other tooth, an eye tooth. Got an anaesthetist to gas me & removed most of it with difficulty. It was rotten & fast in the bone[RG]bone.[RG] Afterwards I wept & went home to bed: removed a piece of casing with a forceps & felt better. I said, on coming out of the anaesthetic that the way wisdom teeth were fitted into the mouth made one a Manichean, sceptical of a wise Personal benevolent God.[RG] Finished Ch. [Chapter] 7 of Ghost.

Editorial Notes

1hot water bottle eds.

Hands Referenced

    • Annotation: ink correction
    • Character: regular
    • Ink: black

People Mentioned

  • Harry Kemp

    Kemp, Harry
    Poet. Met Graves and Riding through James Reeves in August 1936, just after their arrival in England. In their previous correspondence, Riding had been intrigued by his falling-out with Communism. He became associated with their circle, collaborating on various projects. (RPG 248-49)

  • L. Trace

    Trace, L. Dr.
    Dentist who operated on RG 1937 eds.

Bibliography

    • Title: The Swiss Ghost [formerly The Kind Ghost] [novel]
    • Author: Graves, Robert/ Riding, Laura
    • Date: 1937-04-22