Robert Graves was born in 1895 in Wimbledon. He went from school to the First World War, where he became a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme. He wrote his autobiography, Goodbye to All That, in 1929, and it was soon established as a modern classic. He died on 7 December 1985 in Majorca, his home since 1929.
"Robert von Ranke-Graves (1895-1985) nahm die Muse ernst wie vor ihm kein anderer Dichter; er sah sich von ihr gefordert, am Schöpf gepackt, über Abgründe geleitet, verhöhnt, verraten, erleuchtet und geköpft. Nicht praktisch, sondern utopisch war seine Sehnsucht nach der Welt der »Weissen Göttin«."