Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, [novels|historical novelist], critic, and classicist.
Graves's eldest half-brother, Philip Perceval Graves, achieved note as a journalist and his younger brother, Charles Patrick Graves, was a writer and journalist. ==Education== Graves received his early education at a series of six preparatory schools, including King's College School in Wimbledon, Penrallt in Wales, Hillbrow School in Rugby, Rokeby School in Kingston upon Thames and Copthorne in Sussex, from which last in 1909 he won a scholarship to Charterhouse.
In his final year at Charterhouse, he won a classical exhibition to St John's College, Oxford but did not take his place there until after the war. ==First World War== At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant (on probation) on 12 August.
He was confirmed in his rank on 10 March 1915, and received rapid promotion, being promoted to lieutenant on 5 May 1915 and to captain on 26 October.
At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves, and in Germany his books are published under that name, but before and during the First World War the name caused him difficulties. In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread the rumour that he was the brother of a captured German spy who had assumed the name "Karl Graves".
He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916.
Since 1916, the fear of gas obsessed me: any unusual smell, even a sudden strong scent of flowers in a garden, was enough to send me trembling.
How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford, Sassoon wrote to him in 1917. At Somerville College, Graves met and fell in love with Marjorie, a nurse and professional pianist, but stopped writing to her once he learned she was engaged.
The sun shone, and the discipline was easy." In 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public anti-war statement.
Through Sassoon, Graves became a friend of Wilfred Owen, "who often used to send me poems from France." In September 1917, Graves was seconded for duty with a garrison battalion.
Somehow I must live by writing. In October 1919, he took up his place at the University of Oxford, soon changing course to English Language and Literature, though managing to retain his Classics exhibition.
Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God. ==Early life== Graves was born into a middle-class family in Wimbledon, then part of Surrey, now part of south London.
Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, [novels|historical novelist], critic, and classicist.
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