ROBERT VON RANKE GRAVES - DOCUMENT SIGNED 03/23/1936 - HFSID 259203

ROBERT VON RANKE GRAVES
British writer signed this document to endorse a membership application for the Masquers actors' club in 1936.
Document Signed: "Robert Graves". Erased pencil notations in upper right corner and pencil notation on verso, all in unknown hand. B/w, 2 pages, 7x5¼, 1 sheet, front and verso. March 23, 1936. Endorsement of Applicant for Membership to the Masquers actors' club in Hollywood, California. Graves filled out this document to endorse the membership application of Hartley Caldwell. According to Graves' notations on this document, he'd known Caldwell for four years. We're not exactly sure how Graves became a member of the Masquers, a club for actors, or even if he was a member at this time. He has no acting credits and had only one movie credit before 1936, as producer of the 1929 British animation  short Tusalava. Graves (1895-1985) was a prolific British author, poet and translator known for historical novels like I, Claudius(1934) and controversial examinations of mythology like The White Godess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth(1948). Graves also fought in World War I and was psychologically damaged by his experiences in that war for at least a decade. He collected his experiences of the war in the grim memoir Good-Bye to All That (1929). The war also added deep strains of pain to his poetry; his sad love poems are considered some of the finest in the English language and rate right up there with the poetry of W. B. Yeats. Graves sometimes added "von Ranke," his mother's surname, to his name and is thus sometimes listed at "Robert von Ranke Graves". Lightly toned and creased. Staple holes in top left corner. Folded once and unfolded. Otherwise, fine condition.