Editing Robert Graves (section)

==Post-war life==
[[File:Robert Graves home in Deià.jpg|thumb|The home of Robert Graves in Deià, Mallorca]]
Immediately after the war, Graves with his wife, [[Nancy Nicholson]] had a growing family, but he was financially insecure and weakened physically and mentally:

{{blockquote| Very thin, very nervous and with about four years' loss of sleep to make up, I was waiting until I got well enough to go to Oxford on the Government educational grant. I knew that it would be years before I could face anything but a quiet country life. My disabilities were many: I could not use a telephone, I felt sick every time I travelled by train, and to see more than two new people in a single day prevented me from sleeping. I felt ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy, but had sworn on the very day of my demobilization never to be under anyone's orders for the rest of my life. Somehow I must live by writing.<ref>Graves (1960) p. 236.</ref>}}

In October 1919, he took up his place at the [[University of Oxford]], soon changing course to [[English literature|English Language and Literature]], though managing to retain his Classics [[Exhibition (scholarship)|exhibition]]. In consideration of his health, he was permitted to live a little outside [[Oxford]], on [[Boars Hill]], where the residents included [[Robert Bridges]], [[John Masefield]] (his landlord), [[Edmund Blunden]], [[Gilbert Murray]] and [[Robert Nichols (poet)|Robert Nichols]].<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 238–42.</ref> Later, the family moved to Worlds End Cottage on [[Collice Street]], [[Islip, Oxfordshire|Islip]], Oxfordshire.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/indiasprisonerbi00lago/page/194 <!-- quote=good bye to all that, "islip", robert graves, worlds end. --> India's prisoner: a biography of Edward John Thompson, 1886–1946]</ref>

His most notable Oxford companion was [[T. E. Lawrence]], then a [[Fellow]] of [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls]], with whom he discussed contemporary poetry and shared in the planning of elaborate pranks.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 242–47.</ref> By this time, he had become an [[atheist]].<ref>"In addition, between 1919 and 1924 Nancy gave birth to four children in under five years; while Graves (now an atheist like his wife) suffered from recurring bouts of shell-shock." Richard Perceval Graves, 'Graves, Robert von Ranke (1895–1985)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31166] (accessed 1 May 2008).</ref> His work was part of the [[Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics#Literature|literature event]] in the [[Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics|art competition]] at the [[1924 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920477 |title=Robert Graves |work=Olympedia |access-date=23 July 2020}}</ref>

While still an undergraduate he established a grocers shop on the outskirts of Oxford but the business soon failed. He also failed his [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] degree but was exceptionally permitted to take in 1925 a [[Bachelor of Letters]] by dissertation instead,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sillery |first1=A. |last2=Sillery |first2=V. |title=St. John's College Biographical Register 1919-1975 |volume=3 |publisher=Oxford: St. John’s College |year=1975 |page=42}}</ref> allowing him to pursue a teaching career.

In 1926, he took up a post as a professor of English Literature at [[Cairo University]], accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet [[Laura Riding]], with whom he was having an affair. Graves was later told that one of his pupils at the university had been a young [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], but this is obviously untrue as Nasser was only eight years old at the time.<ref>Robert Graves (1998). ''Good-Bye to All That''. New York: Doubleday. p. 346.</ref>

He returned to London briefly, where he separated from his wife under highly emotional circumstances (and at one point Riding attempted suicide) before leaving to live with Riding in [[Deià]], [[Mallorca]]. There they continued to publish [[Letterpress printing|letterpress]] books under the rubric of the [[Seizin Press]], founded and edited the literary journal, ''[[Epilogue (periodical)|Epilogue]]'' and wrote two successful academic books together: ''A Survey of Modernist Poetry'' (1927) and ''A Pamphlet Against Anthologies'' (1928); both had great influence on modern literary criticism, particularly [[New Criticism]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Birth of New Criticism: Conflict and Conciliation in the Early Work of William Empson, I.A. Richards, Robert Graves, and Laura Riding|last=Childs|first=Donald J|date=2014|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|language=en|oclc = 941601073}}</ref>