May 1st Monday
Finished the poem written on the ship in 5 drafts.Not traced. DW; eds.
Went over to Trenton the State Capital & had my back treated by a
cheiropractor
chiropractor
called Jacobs: Schuyler took us
Meanwhile Laura & David bought a Ford 1936 black sedan 4 door car for $365.
Met Julie's mother. Laura did a painting for Tom in his big map-book.
Tom's Time week ended.
May 2 Tuesday
We – Tom, Julie, Laura, David & I – went over to a picnic at New Hope; the lower floor boards were down and the planking started. Saw the plans; approved but for the opening of one door. (Griselda with rash from pigeons.)
Getting to know Katharine better.
Tom showed us a memorandum from LuceHenry Robinson Luce (1898-1967) eds.; editor of Time KG about Time's function: very heartening.
Schuyler will work on Dictionary.
Laura happy but thinner and not sleeping well.
Drink with the Bishop & Mrs Matthewsparents of Tom Matthews KG: they froze.
May 3 Wednesday
Letters all day.
Katharine came over in the morning for her first talk alone with Laura.
At night Schuyler & she came to supper & after we talked about Friendship Protocol.
David sad: would not say his Bull sentencesee Apr. 25, 1938 entry. eds. when asked.
May 4 Thursday
Did not see Schuyler or Katharine all day, which made it
queer. L had a temperature & seemed thinner. Another journey to the Trenton
cheiropractor
chiropractor
who pushed my sacrum into place, he claimed. I feel better, but stiff-backed.
At night Tom, L, J & I discussed his book-page in Time: how it could be made closer to what a book-page should be.
Log Entries of Letters for May, 1939
5
Watt about Ebro & about Cape; Flower about Feminà Vie
Prix Feminà Vie Heureuse awarded to Count Belisarius, see enclosure 3 April, 1939 eds.; Karl; Norman, Dorothy, Maisie, Eric
Margaret, Anita & Juan.
May 5 Friday
Schuyler came over early, just to see us.
We went to New York
Laura & I in a train while David went to Long Island to look up his friend but found his letters uncollected at the Box. We got on the Grand Central & Times Square shuttle & shuttled too much by mistake then got out at the Bloomingdalesshopping centre eds. on 59th where Laura had been lost as a child.
Went to Robin Hale's apartment where met Duncan Miller for a short time; he was pleased but uncertain. Then with Robin
to
a Cosy Tea Room which at 4.45 served only suppers, then to eat applepie, cheese & coffee somewhere. Robin very sweet, but bringing forward wrong names – FaulknerWilliam Clark Faulkner (1897-1962), American writer eds., Auden, Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. New York: Viking Press, 1939. eds. SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck (1902-1968), American writer eds.. Next supper at Fornos Spanish Restaurant. Julie, David, Tom, Laura me & Noguera & Portela. Noguera was the man who put MarchJuan March, a Majorquin millionaire KG into jail in 1932: will tell Time about him. Portela said he liked Red Indians & cats, not negroes or dogs. Called Laura Captain Araña who embarked his crew & stayed ashore himself: i.e. she ordered drinks for all but herself. Tom showed the Time review to L & me (of Frost & me)A combined review by Schuyler Jackson of Robert Graves' and Robert Frost's Collected Poems that appeared in Time 15 May, 1939. Friedmann 337.
Enclosure –
RG Poem
The Moon Ends in Nightmare
The Moon Ends in
Nightmare
I had once boasted my acquaintance
With the Moon's phases: I had seen her, even,
Endure and emerge from full eclipse.
Yet as she stood in the West, that summer night,
The fireflies dipping insanely about me,
So that the foggy air quivered and winked
And the sure eye was cheated,
In horror I cried aloud: for the same Moon
Whom I had held a living power, though changeless,
Split open in my sight, a bright egg shell,
And a double-headed Nothing grinned
All-wisely from the rift within. the gap.
At that
this I found my earth no more substantial
That the lower air, or the upper,
And ran to plunge in the cool flowing creek,
My eyes and ears pressed under water,
.
And there
did I drowned, and left
leaving my corpse in mud
?
Yet still the thing was so.
I crept to where my window beckoned warm
Between the white oak and the tulip tree
And rapped – but was denied, as who returns
After a one-hour-seeming century
To a house not his own.
May 6
At this point the diary seems graveyard; so I stop it.
Trenton
Trenton
New Jersey
United States
New Hope
Brownsburg
Pennsylvania
USA
Schuyler Jackson's farm, where Graves and Riding stayed soon after they arrived in America in 1939. eds
New York
New York City
New York
United States
Jackson
Schuyler
Schuyler Jackson
Jackson, Schuyler
American poet who became Laura Riding's second husband. Graves and Riding stayed with Jackson, his wife Katharine ("Kit"), and his family on their farm in Pennsylvania in 1939. It was here that the partnership between R.G. and L.R. came to an end. eds
Riding
Laura
Laura
Riding, Laura
(1901-91) American poet. Laura Riding (née Reichenthal; then Laura Gottschalk).
Reeves
David
David Reeves
Reeves, David
Brother of James Reeves [and Ethel Herdman] RPG 292.
Matthews
Julie
Julie
Matthews, Julie
Tom Matthews' wife. WG
Matthews
Thomas S.
Tom
Matthews, T.S.(Tom)
American journalist. Took sabbatical from TIME and arrived in Deyá in 1930. Involved from then on with L.R. and R.G. WG
Ohannessian nቐJackson
Griselda
Griselda
Jackson, Griselda
Schuyler and Katharine Jackson's eldest child; younger siblings are Maria, Kathie, and Ben Jackson eds.
Jackson
Katharine
Katharine Jackson
Jackson, Katharine
m. to Schuyler Jackson eds.
Hodge
Alan
Alan
Hodge, Alan
Oxford history graduate. Became close friends with LR & RG. First husband of Beryl Graves. CP & WG
Beryl
Pritchard, Beryl
daughter of Harry and Amy Pritchard, R.G.'s second wife. Formerly married to Alan Hodge. Robert and Beryl had four children: William, Lucia, Juan and Tomas. eds
Flower
Desmond
Desmond Flower
Flower, Desmond
associated with Cassell publishers KG
Goldschmidt
Karl
Karl/Carl
Goldschmidt, Karl
Karl Goldschmidt, later Kenneth Gay: Graphic artist, friend and secretary of Robert Graves and Laura Riding since 1934. R. G. spells both as Carl and Karl.
Cameron
Norman
Norman Cameron
Cameron, Norman
Poet. Built Can Torrent in 1932-1933. W.G.; m. to Elfriede, then to Catherine Vandervelde; friend and contributor to LR and RG's work eds.
Dorothy
Simmons, Dorothy
Sculptor associated with the Graves-Riding inner circle (1938-39). Married to Montague Simmons. eds
Sommerville
Maisie
Maisie
Sommerville, Maisie
Head of BBC Education broadcasting department. Friend of R.G. and L.R. Arranged accomodation for them when they returned to London as exiles. W.G., eds.
Tattersall
Eric
Tattersall
Tattersall, Eric
RG met on board the HMS Grenville eds. see Diary August 3 & 5, 1936
Russell
Margaret
Margaret
Russell, Margaret
House-keeper L.R. & R.G. had had in London. WG
Marroig
Anita
Anita
Ana, Anita
Marroig. Gelat's daughter, married to Juan Vives the Doctor's brother. Live in Rennes, France. WG
Vives
Juan
Juan
Vives, Juan
The Doctor's brother. Married to Gelat's daughter. Lived in Rennes, France. WG
Hale
Robin
Robin
Hale, Robin
American poet eds; friend [and, eventually, wife] of David Reeves KG;
Auden
W. H.
Auden
Auden, W.H.
British poet (1907-1973). R.G. disliked. eds
Noguera
Noguera
Spanish official befriended by RG on the C.G.T. Chamberlain en route to New York in 1939 eds.
Portela
Portela
Spanish ex-prefect befreinded by RG on the C.G.T. Chamberlain en route to New York in 1939 eds.
Graves
Robert
Robert
Graves, Robert
[1st person]. (1895-1985). Poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and author of his diary. eds.
Graves
Robert
Graves, Robert
Author of the diary.
Graves
Beryl A.
Graves, Beryl A.
Second wife of Robert Graves. Transcribed the diary entries and register of letters written (hereafter, logs) from
a photocopy of the manuscript, and these 53 monthly MS Dos, ASCII files, dated 01/01/83 were sent to Chris Petter by
The Robert Graves Trust on floppy disc in 1996.
Goldschmidt
Karl
Goldschmidt, Karl
Karl Goldschmidt, d.1995, who later changed his name to Kenneth Gay,
was Robert Graves' and Laura Riding's personal secretary during the period when the diary was written. He later annotated
another printout of the diary produced from the B.A. Graves transcript, which is at the Graves Trust Archives in St. John's Oxford.
Notes by Karl Goldschmidt are denoted as KG.
Graves
William
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.
A.S. Watt & Son, Ltd.
Watt
Watt, A.S.
RG's literary agent: first mentioned in November, 1935; team includes: Alexander Strahan Watt, and W.P. Watt et al, who may have handled different aspects of Graves' extensive European publishing and distribution. The firm replaced Eric Pinker. K.G. When did Pinker go, and why? KG
Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Cape
Jonathan
Cape
Jonathan Cape
London publisher of Lawrence and the Arabs, Good-Bye to All That, No Decency Left, etc. eds.
Editors
Editors of the Graves Diary Project.
Time [Magazine]
New York
Dictionary [projected project; unfinished]
Riding, Laura
1935
Protocol Two [unpublished, see RPG 295]
Riding, Laura
1939
Count Belisarius [1938]
Graves, Robert
London
Cassell
A47
1937-07-21
Moon Ends in Nightmare, The [poem: draft enclosed: see diary May 6, 1939. eds.]
Robert Graves: Complete Poems Vol. III
Graves, Robert
Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward
Manchester
Carcanet Press
pp. 347, 528 (note)
1995-1999