Robert Graves was a poet, novelist, biographer, mythographer, classical scholar and translator. obert Graves was born on July 24, 1895 in Wimbledon, England into a highly-literary and upper-class family. He was educated in the British preparatory school system and first began to write poetry during his days at school. Despite his dislike of his teachers and the other students, Graves excelled in his studies and was eventually awarded a scholarship to St. Johns College of Oxford University in 1914. When World War I began later that year, however, Graves decided to forgo his scholarship to college and instead enlisted as an officer with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. In May 1915, Graves traveled to France as a captain and became close friends with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also a member of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

His more than 120 books also include a notable historical novel, I, Claudius (1934), an autobiographical classic of World War I, Good-Bye to All That (1929),and erudite, controversial studies in mythology. In 1968, Queen Elizabeth awarded him a Gold Medal for Poetry. He stopped writing soon after his 80th birthday due to gradual physical and mental degeneration. He died on December 7, 1985 and is buried in Deia, Majorca.