GRAVES, Robert (1895-1985). Poet.
Autograph Letter Signed ('Robert Graves') to Arnold Bennett, 1 page 8vo, The Worlds End, Islip, Oxfordshire, no date [1925]. Discussing the 'Cairo appointment', and promising to let him know the outcome.

'... It is nice of you to limit your list of recommendations as you have done.'

At the end of 1925 Graves's wife's doctor had recommended that she should spend some time in Egypt for the benefit of her health. Seemingly by coincidence Graves was then offered two jobs, one the professorship of English at Liverpool University and the other a similar position in Cairo, which offered a good salary and very little in the way of commitments. He was supported in the latter application by several luminaries including Robert Bridges, John Buchan, and Asquith (then Earl of Oxford). He had, however, been concerned that Bennett might spoil his chances in some way, and wrote to him 'not at any rate to crab my chances', but in the event Bennett was fully supportive, as the present letter testifies, and Graves got the job. Arnold Bennett does not mention the matter in the three volumes of his Journals, ed. Newman Flower, 1932-33.
[No: 25781]