Robert Graves | Good-bye to All That, London, 1929, first edition, first impression, inscribed by the author

Robert Graves

Good-bye to All That. London: Jonathan Cape, 1929

FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, 8vo, frontispiece, plates, original cloth, dust-jacket, endleaves dampstained, dust-jacket torn at extremities (especially at head of spine)

Inscribed by the author: "Shirley [Martinez] from Robert, 1978". The recipient was the Graves family's housekeeper on Mallorca, who was clearly much beloved, as several letters and cards to her from various family members are laid-in, including a postcard (signed "Robbie" and in an earlier hand than the inscription in the book) commiserating with her after an accident: "Dear Shirley, sorry to hear about your fall [...] Love + levitation. Robbie x." There are also four letters from the author's second wife Beryl to Martinez with many mentions of Graves as "El Rubio". First issue with the Sassoon poem on pp.341-43 (because of which the publisher had to recall this issue), thus inscribed copies are rare. Since the inscription is dated 1978, it seems probable that this was one of Graves's own retained copies, eventually gifted to his housekeeper.