Oct 16 Sunday

Alan's birthday. Dictionary
Alan did not realize that a big party was being arranged for him in the evening in the Chapel: which we had converted into a sort of Bower with bracken, Spanish chestnut shoots, boughs with apples, holly, vine, and a collection of frightful fungus.
We had supper ×××× [indecipherable] with a big table, covered with food & strewn with sweets, and extemporized a play in which Dorothy could somehow not join. But just before I had left the[RG] a lamp smoking in Laura's dressing room and this, and, the washroom & L's bedroom was covered with a thick layer of smuts, with black cobwebs festooned from ceilings – like a picture of a miser's den. I worked till [until] 3.15 cleaning while Laura did Aristotle1.

Editorial Notes

Hands Referenced

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

People Mentioned

  • Alan

    Hodge, Alan
    Oxford history graduate. Became close friends with LR & RG. First husband of Beryl Graves. CP & WG

  • Laura

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

  • Dorothy

    Simmons, Dorothy
    Sculptor associated with the Graves-Riding inner circle (1938-39). Married to Montague Simmons. eds
  • Graves, Robert
    Author of the diary.

Bibliography

    • Title: Dictionary [projected project; unfinished]
    • Author: Riding, Laura
    • Date: 1935
    • Title: Lives of Wives [prose]
    • Author: Riding, Laura
    • PubPlace: London, Toronto, Melbourne & Sydney
    • Publisher: Cassell and Co. Ltd.
    • Idno: A39
    • Date: 1939