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Correspondence of Robert Graves and Laura Riding

 Collection
Call Number: MS 100

Overview

This is a group of several separately acquired collections of letters (a total of 62 letters) by the writers Robert Graves (1895-1985) and Laura Riding (1901-1991), largely to their literary agents. The correspondents include: Harold Monro (1879-1932), Alfred Perceval Graves (1846-1931) [Robert Graves' father], Pinker (of James B. Pinker & Son, literary agents), Wicken (of James B. Pinker & Son), James Burton Pond (1890?-1961), lecture agent, Thomas R. Buckman, librarian. Most of the letters are undated and have not been arranged chronologically. Places from which and to which they were writing include England: Oxfordshire, Lancashier, Cumberland, Lancashire, and London England; Deya, Majorca; Harlech, Wales; Vienna, Austria; and Heliopolis, Egypt.

Dates

  • Creation: 1916 - 1966

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

No access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

Biographies of Robert Graves and Laura Riding

Robert van Ranke Graves, son of Irish poet Alfred Perceval Graves, was born July 24, 1895 in London, England. He served on the western front during World War I, which served as inspriration for his autobiographical volume Good-Bye to All That. Graves wrote several hsitorical novels, including I, Claudius and its sequel. Graves was also a poet and wrote scholarly works and translations, including The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth and The Rubyat of Omar Khayam.

After divorcing his first wife, Graves met Laura Riding, American poet and critic. Riding was born January 16, 1901 in New York City and attended Cornell University. From 1926 to 1939 she lived abroad with Graves in Deya, Majorca; the couple established the Seizin Press and together wrote A Survey of Modernist Poetry.

Laura Riding married Schuyler B. Jackson in 1941 and died in Sebastian, Florida in September 1991. Robert Graves was elected professor of poetry at the University of Oxford in 1961 and held that post until 1966. He died in December 1985 in Deya.

Extent

.25 Linear Feet (1 document case)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

The collection is organized in 4 series:

  1. Correspondence with Harold Mono of the Poetry Bookshop, 1917-1926
  2. Correspondence with Pinker & Sons, literary agents
  3. Graves: miscellaneous letters
  4. Riding to Pinker & Sons, literary agents

Physical Location

MS 100

Title
Guide to the Graves-Riding Collection
Subtitle
Correspondence of Robert Graves and Laura Riding
Author
Finding aid prepared by sm, 1954; alh, 1963; am, 1964; alh, 1971, 1972; revised by ksc, 2006. Finding aid encoded by skt, 2006.
Date
2006
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Finding aid written in<language encodinganalog="language">English.</language>
Finding aid permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/10407/1740614347
Preferred citation
Correspondence of Robert Graves and Laura Riding, Department of Special Collections, MS 100, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

Repository Details

Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository

Contact:
1450 Poplar Lane
Lawrence KS 66045-7616 United States
785-864-4334