While living with Beryl in Vale House Farm, Galmpton, South Devon, Graves experienced a prolific period of creativity.
After completing Wife to Mr Milton, he wrote the fictional prose narrative The Golden Fleece, which was finished in July 1944. He reconstructed the mythological world of Jason, the Argonauts, Medea, and the Golden Fleece, by drawing on his wide reading, knowledge and love for the classical authors.
Essential to his narrative were the four books of the Argonautica of Appollonius of Rhodes. Undertaking this project, he was surrounded by the ‘whole weight of Classical History and myth’, which helped him re-configure his idea of ‘The White Goddess’.
The illustrations in this Folio edition are by the English artist Grahame Baker.
Frontispiece illustration from Robert Graves, The Golden Fleece © Grahame Baker, from the 2003 edition published by The Folio Society, reproduced with permission.