Robert Graves

My hands are smelling smokey this morning because I've been reading a biography of Robert Graves brought in by someone who smokes. (That wasn't at all what I was planning to write when I started this.) The book (by his nephew Richard Graves) is very compelling and his life an inspiring if exhausting one to read about. I have happened upon the third of what is a trilogy and an enormous work because this was an enormous man who packed a lot into his time on the planet. The third book begins as he settles to life with his third woman, Beryl. It was therefore confusing to read in the beginning because there is so much to try to catch up with. He was maried, had four children by his first wife Nancy, then lived with the American poet Laura Ridng who sounds horrendously egocentric and witchy. Laura eventually became TOO withcy and bitchy and also appears to have tired of him so that she was pleased when he began to be interested in Beryl. At first, then that went sour and chaos ensued. He stayed with Beryl for the rest of his life and cannot be accused of having achieved what he did because there was a woman seeing to all the practical affairs of his life. She was never robust in health, anaemic, easily tired and eventually had cancer which she survived to live to an old age. They had no servants or nannies, or any of the usual helpful unmaried female relatives that families seemed to include in those days, so for many years he was fully involved in the domestic chores and child care. The wonder is that he managed to write anything at all. I have just reached the point where he has decided he needs a new 'Muse.' Interestingly, because this seems to be a common occurance and has relevance to our family, he started to feel this just around the time when he and Beryl were finally able to marry because his first wife agreed to divorce him. The Muse who appears is a seventeen year old American girl who sees him and Beryl as the good parents she didn't have - luckily! She found his attentions and the role he gave her somewhat oppresive, which is refreshing to hear. She didn't let his attention turn her head or give her an identity. On the contrary she seems to have been more eager to lead her own life. Beryl wisely accepted her into the family although it doesn't sound as if the children did!

Graves was, as far as I can read, a passionate, romantic intellectual who became more and mre interested in mythology and in what might these days be called the Feminine principle. he felt that Christianity did humanity a disservice when it diverted the essentially matriarchal, goddess worshipping religion of pagan times. His great book 'The White Goddess' is, confusingly to me, about poetry and the roots of poetry. I feel my own lack of intellect when I try to read his work, but it's good to stretch the mind!

There's certainly no custom to distract so far today, and no Amazon sales either. I remember this from last Easter which although later seemed to have the same effect of a change of gear. It's as though people are thinking ahead to the summer now and less introspective. Less inclined to read!

I changed the books in the window today and it was the usual interesting process. I begin with one idea and it evolves. Today I was going to fill the window with art but it has become a rather dry window about books, book making, printing, and a little about story-telling. It must have been influenced by Graves I think. I have included the 'Bookworm Droppings' that arrived recently (and that I still have to pay for) a cheerful little collection of silly things people say in secondhand bookshops like: "I had a book once. It was blue. I wonder if you have a copy?"

On the whole these days I choose books for the window display less with an eye to selling them and more to give an idea of the range of the shop. I know local people like seeing the changes. Occasionally someone tells me about me it has aroused an interest in them for a subject. It has even started one or two on collections - like the Crime Club boooks for instance. One woman collects them for the lurid covers of the older titles.