A good classic read makes up for a lot of dogs that have crossed the table for any regular bibliophile. Amazon makes classics available any time-just look and there they are. One in particular caught my eye by the esteemed author, Robert Graves, from the UK, vintage early 20th century.
Robert Graves, a Brit, born in 1895, wrote this autobiography at age 33, when most of us are still trying to figure it out. At this stage of Graves' life, he had already published acclaimed poetry and an account of T.E. Lawrence and his Arabian adventures. He had completed studies at Oxford and most significantly, had survived the First World War.
Much of his biography focuses on that experience, an infantry officer in the trenches on the Western Front, not the most enviable positions for any man. His insights rang a bell, and his thoughts were similar to many of those who shared that type of experience. As often happens, writing of that time during a life, helps to heal the psychological and physical wounds. His book is filled with episodes from his military service across the English Channel, his wounding, his recovery and hospitalization, and his redeployment. The book also includes his analysis of contemporary poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, both participants in the war zones of France and Belgium.
His insights into the behaviors of officers and enlisted men are excellent, describing uniform characteristics of men in battle, before and after.
He was a prolific writer up until his death in 1957. My first introduction to his work occurred at an early age, 15, when studying Greek classical poetry and Graves' translations of the Greek myths.
He could easily be classified as one of the great authors, genius really, of the English language.
A thorough telling of his life, a modern biography, is in process, by author Jane Moorcroft Wilson, (2019).
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