Robert Graves letters,

Eleven letters, [1966]-1973, from the poet and novelist Robert Graves, to Owen M. Roberts, Bickley, Kent, his comrade in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whom Graves credited with saving his life at High Wood in July 1916, during the Somme offensive (ff. 1-3, 5-12).
Also included is a carbon copy typescript letter from Roberts to Graves, 1 January 1968 (f. 4). The letters contain references to the battle at High Wood (ff. 1, 10), the Royal Welch Fusiliers (ff. 6, 8, 11), Siegfried Sassoon (ff. 1 verso, 2, 12 verso) and Harold Macmillan (f. 10 verso). Graves mentions Roberts in his autobiography, Goodbye to All That (London, 1929); Roberts's copy of the 1966 revised edition (see NLW ex 2334) contains an autograph dedication from Graves and a marginal gloss on p. 198.

Arranged chronologically at NLW.

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Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 163; 8 July 2004; 0200409878.

Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 23931D.

April 2012.

Description compiled by Maredudd ap Huw and revised by Rhys Morgan Jones;

Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding the ownership of Robert Graves copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed April 2012).

For inscribed copies of Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That (London, 1966) and The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayaam, trans. by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah (London, 1967), purchased with these letters, see NLW ex 2334; a copy of Graves's Fairies and Fusiliers (London, 1917), also inscribed by the author to O. M. Roberts, was lot 164 at the same sale, but was not purchased by NLW.

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales