I photographed this ancient olive tree on the grounds of Robert Graves’s home. The house and grounds have been turned into a small museum. The location is in the world-heritage town of Deia, perched on a rocky mountain on the south coast of Mallorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic islands. The scenery is of the Mediterranean, spectacular mountains, and small stone and white-washed villages clinging to the cliffs.
If you don’t know him, Robert Graves is worth your time. Robert Graves was a poet, classicist, historical novelist, critic, and essayist; also, a thoroughly unconventional fellow in terms of his various living arrangements. He’s perhaps best known for his historical novel of the ancient Roman empire, I Claudius, but he also (among many other books) wrote the first biography of Lawrence of Arabia (and the only biography authorized by T.E.Lawrence) and a compelling memoir of life in the trenches of the first world war, Goodbye to All That (the title also refers to the definitive passing of the old order and class structure brought about by the war).
Harold Davis
2 May 2017Graves is buried in the beautiful municipal cemetery at the top of the village of Deia. Of course, I wanted to photograph his marker, but it wasn’t easy to find, shrouded by an overgrown flower bed. The simple stone read “Robert Graves Poet,” and looked like it had been written in hand in the wet cement.
Andi Laidlaw
6 May 2017J’en suis bouleversé ! Andi