Robert Graves: Life on the Edge

Robert Graves (1895-1985), egocentric, obstreperous novelist, poet, critic and scholar of classical myth (The White Goddess), mythologized his own life, according to this intimate biography. Shell-shocked in WWI, Graves, enmeshed in homosexual circles, abruptly married strong-minded feminist Nancy Nicholson but abandoned her and their four children for charismatic American poet Laura Riding, leaving England and settling with her in Mallorca in 1930. Graves endorsed Riding's megalomaniacal belief in her supernatural powers, idealizing her as a savior and prophet of world peace, and as his muse, embodiment of the all-powerful ancient Goddess worshipped in matriarchal societies. But when Riding ditched him, Graves discovered the muse no longer resided in her. Despite the loving domesticity provided by his second wife, Beryl Pritchard, Graves pursued a series of young women, turning each into his muse. This, observes Seymour, was his way of atoning for guilt over the men he had killed in WWI, Riding's suicide attempt and the family he had abandoned. British novelist Seymour, biographer of Henry James and Ottoline Morrell, had full cooperation from Graves's widowed second wife and son William in writing this demythologizing biography. Photos. (Oct.)