Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
User Collection Public
The collection consists of a complete autograph diary detailing four years in the lives of Robert Graves and Laura Riding. The period covered is from 22nd February 1935 to 6th May 1939, during which time Graves and Riding lived in Mallorca, Lugano, England, Brittany and Pennsylvania. The 1,546 page diary also contains 117 enclosures of letters from Graves' children, photographs, and press cuttings, as well as 99 other miscellaneous items such as typescripts of poems, articles and letters.
This important diary represents a highly detailed record of four years in the lives of both Robert Graves and Laura Riding, from whom he was seldom separated for more than a few hours throughout the period that it covers. As well as giving full accounts of domestic events - building projects, gardening, jam-making, shopping expeditions, visits from friends and the like - Graves notes precisely the work that he and Laura Riding have accomplished each day, both separately and in collaboration. All their working projects are minutely documented.
Please also see the Robert Graves Diary project website.
Image: Accession Number: 2002-030, Box 5, Folder 6, Lot Gr-24, Item: Gr-77
Permalink: http://vault.library.uvic.ca/collections/cd1721f5-933f-421f-866f-317957fef51d
Collection Details
- Items 1731
- Last Updated 2025-02-21
Parent Collections (1)
Works (1731)
1501. Nov 21 Monday
- Title:
- Nov 21 Monday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985 and Authors, English
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-21
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1373
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-21.html and Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 21 Monday No reviews yet of poems published on the 18th – preliminary suscriptions amounted to £7.19/- O. Belisarius published today in United States of America A mad letter from Mary Lucy saying that she is mediumistic & always having feelings about me – & I must not tell anyone. I was very angry and told everyone present. Recently she wrote of a dream about my breaking my glasses & getting eyestrain: but she got it wrong, it was Alan who has done this. All day except Dictionary And on poem. At 12 p.m., when Beryl Dorothy & Alan came to have tea with me in the Salon, I asked Beryl to burn it, which she did. Work on Swiss Ghost Chapter X
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1502. Nov 22nd Tuesday
- Title:
- Nov 22nd Tuesday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-22
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1374
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-22.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 22nd Tuesday Dictionary & work on Swiss Ghost . Old man sawing wood for us. Watt phoned that I would have to go to England to sign sheets of Lawrence books in time for Christmas publication. I refused, & he arranged that a Miss Nernie would bring them to Paris for me to sign there. That clouded the day, & it rained heavily too. Laura working mostly with David: & wrote letters in my bedroom most of the night. Evening walk with her along Boisgervilly road.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1503. Nov 23 Wednesday.
- Title:
- Nov 23 Wednesday.
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-23
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1375
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-23.html and Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 23 Wednesday. Alan will come to Paris with me. Dictionary , Swiss Ghost doing [Figure – drawing of arrow, pointing to “Dictionary” ] colours and adverbs today. Dorothy made a beautiful flapper of blue & silver. The little black cat still recovering from its bath – the petroleum in it was too strong. Chamberlain & Halifax visit Paris: are booed. Beryl's joke: Frappe, frappe, Qui là? Allemand. Allemand quoi? Alimentation .
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1504. Nov 24 Thursday
- Title:
- Nov 24 Thursday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985 and Authors, English
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-24
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1376
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-24.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 24 Thursday Dictionary & 16 pages of Swiss Ghost . Waiting all day for news from Watt. Finally telephoned: stuff not arrived. Expected tomorrow. Walk to Montauban with Dorothy: who has got a worried letter from Mary about Montague O dear. Laura on Furniture & Greeks & Trojans Chamberlain Petit Henri brought a present of mistletoe.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1505. Nov 25 Friday
- Title:
- Nov 25 Friday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-25
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1377
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-25.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 25 Friday Dictionary We waited most of the day for a telephone call from Miss Nernie in London. It came at 4 and we arranged to meet in Paris at 10.30 tomorrow for me to sign the sheets. Margaret has lost her job from being separated from her husband. Karl has got permanent leave to live & work in England.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1506. Nov 26 Sat.
- Title:
- Nov 26 Sat.
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-26
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1378
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-26.html and Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 26 Sat. To Paris at 2.30 am Laura decided to come, though she had no preliminary sleep as I & Beryl & David had. Monsieur Priour drove us. We had rugs, cigarettes & a bottle of Calvados . It blew and rained violently all the way. We stopped for breakfast at a village inn, but it stank so and was so filthy and night-before-lastish that we only had coffee & went straight on to Paris. We went by Laval, Le Mans, Chartres. At Le Mans saw a tall man running in the rain: he was le mans to us. At 9.30 arrived at the outskirts where Priour wanted to put us down and let us go on by taxi. However, we went on to Café Bel-Air a Breton Café and freshened up. Then we went to 66 rue Mirò Mesnil where Miss Nernie should have been. I was there all day waiting: she sent an unintelligible wire from the boat. It appears that instead of going the quickest way she had gone by Havre, so as not to arrive in Paris too early. The boat had not sailed until next morning. At 5.30 she arrived & I had signed the T.E. sheets by 7. But they will not go off until Tuesday after all. Oh, I had had lunch with the others & Joyce Reeves at the Du Quesclin in Montparnasse. Beryl spent the morning with Cecily Scott, an Oxford friend married to the Paris Daily Express correspondent & had champagne. Denise Clairouin the literary agent in whose office in Miro Mesnil I spent the day was very hospitable & a very good person I thought. For a moment I also saw Jewel (?) one of Morrow's people. Laura bought me a blue scarf & we got cakes for David & a candlestick for Dorothy.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1507. Nov 27 Sunday.
- Title:
- Nov 27 Sunday.
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985 and Authors, English
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-27
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1379
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-27.html and Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 27 Sunday. After supper at Étoile we collected Priour from his uncle's and came home. Started at 9 p.m. Met a lot of fog and did not get back until 4.30 am. Not much sleep in car. David & Dorothy had lit fires in bedrooms for us. We slept until lunch-time when some of us had breakfast and some a bread & cheese lunch. By 4 o'clock we were ready to start work again. First review of my poems; in T.L.S – peremptory and stupid. Swiss Ghost Chapter X and Dictionary To bed at midnight
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1508. Enclosure – Cutting from Time Magazine , 28 Nov. 1938. Review of Count Belisarius
- Title:
- Enclosure – Cutting from Time Magazine , 28 Nov. 1938. Review of Count Belisarius
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-28
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1444
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1939-01-24_01_enc.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Enclosure – Cutting from Time Magazine , 28 Nov. 1938. Review of Count Belisarius “ After the End ”
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1509. Nov 28 Monday
- Title:
- Nov 28 Monday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-28
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1380
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-28.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 28 Monday Still half-asleep from our journey. Swiss Ghost . Chapter X Dictionary : going through dictionary to catch words that have not yet been grouped. Conversation: Alan to Beryl: What is an acouche? Beryl crossly: Don't Why should I know? Alan: I thought you just might Beryl: Well I just might dont. A walk to the big lake now overflowing the weir and through the soaking fields, with Beryl & Alan, past Ribandière. No green now on trees except mistletoe. Laura dictated letters, felt weak, went to bed early.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.
1510. Nov 29 Tuesday
- Title:
- Nov 29 Tuesday
- Description:
- Page from Robert Graves diary manuscript. The diary includes 1,546 pages with 117 enclosures: letters, clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games.
- Subject:
- Authors, English and Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Creator:
- Graves, Robert, 1895-1985
- Language:
- eng
- Date Created:
- 1938-11-29
- Rights Statement:
- In Copyright
- License:
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access. This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- Resource Type:
- http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text
- Extent:
- 1 page : 12 x 19.5 cm or smaller
- Additional Physical Characteristics:
- The diary is written on quarto sheets, folded horizontally to form octavo booklets, one recto page devoted to each day.
- Physical Repository:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Collection:
- Robert Graves Diary, 1935-1939
- Provider:
- University of Victoria (B.C.). Library
- Genre:
- diaries
- Archival Item Identifier:
- Accession Number: 1969-003, Item: Gr-1-1381
- Fonds Title:
- Robert Graves collection
- Fonds Identifier:
- SC050
- Is_referenced_by:
- Special Collection finding aid: https://search.archives.uvic.ca/robert-graves-collection and Robert Graves Diary project URL: http://graves.uvic.ca/diary_1938-11-29.html
- Date Digitized:
- 2002-07-19
- Transcript:
- Nov 29 Tuesday Alan & Beryl went to Rennes to get money. There was a letter two days ago from Mary Lucy to me, privately, all about clairvoyant feelings about me. I didn't like it at all, & of course showed it to L. Laura wrote to her asking her to stop it & saying that it was this sort of thing that encouraged John Lucy to his stupidities. Now Mary Lucy writes in farewell – I was am cruel & Laura puts mind before heart. We are all relieved to be free of that. She owes Laura £10 though. Very cold. Dictionary . Ghost finished chapter X draft Walk at 2.30 am with Dorothy: stars as usual. Laura stayed up until 4.14 am, working over a chapter of David's, & I with her.
- Technical Note:
- 300 dpi TIFF. Migration metadata by MT.