White Goddess
First published in 1948, "The White Goddess" is one of the century's most extraordinary books. A poet's impassioned introduction to the world of poetry, it is also a great scholar's quest for the meaning of European mythology, a polemic about the relations between man and woman, and an intensely personal document. In it Robert Graves explored the sources of his inspiration and, as he believed, of all true poetry. He also came to terms with memories of his painful but formative relationship with Laura Riding, and made peace with his family's Irish inheritance as poets, scholars, and contributors to the Irish Literary Revival. It stands beside Yeats' "A Vision" as a major work of modern myth-making, and the clarifications it wrought in Graves' own mind made possible the writing of some of his finest poems. Certainly no one can fully understand Graves, or his poetry, without reading "The White Goddess".
This new edition incorporates major corrections to the text, including for the first time all Robert Graves' final revisions, as well as his replies to the book's reviewers and his own account of the months of inspiration in which "The White Goddess" was written.
About the Author
Robert Graves (1895-1985), poet, classical scholar, novelist, and critic, was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. Athough he produced over 100 books he is perhaps best known for the novel "I, Claudius" (1934), "The White Goddess" (1948) and "Greek Myths" (1955).
Robert Graves was born in Wimbledon, South London. His father, Alfred Percival Graves, was a school inspector, and his mother, Amalie von Ranke Graves, was a great-niece of the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1866). He was educated at Charterhouse, and awarded a B. Litt by St. John's College, Oxford after his return from World war I, where he served alsongside Siegfried Sassoon.
Robert Graves died in 1985 in Deja, the Majorcan village he had made his home (with the exception of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War) since 1929.
