Robert Graves Diary ProjectFeb.1935 – May 1939

held by UVic Special Collections

Dr. Elizabeth Grove-White & Chris Petter, editors

mark-up by Linda Roberts

Technical support by Spencer Rose, HMC

Robert Graves Diary ProjectUniversity of Victoria

Research Scope and Objectives• Graves is a popular writer whose cannon is being republished by

Carcanet press.• The diary copyright belongs to The Robert Graves Trust who are

keen on it being made available• The diary is of continuing interest to historians and biographers

of Graves and his circle• The projects’ objective is to produce the first scholarly edition, in

print and electronic form of this unpublished diary• Diary includes 1546 pages including 117 enclosures: letters,

clippings, photographs post cards, notes, games etc. etc.

Chronology of Events in Robert Graves' Life

• - born in 1895• - fought in the Great War 1914-16• - began publishing poetry with other Georgian poets• - married Nancy Nicholson, Dec. 1917• - lived in Boars Hill while reading English at St John's• - began publishing novels• - 1929, left Nancy and moved to Majorca with Laura Riding – diary

begins Feb. 1935 in Deja Majorca• 1929-1939 the most important and interesting phase of Graves’ and

Riding’s writing• - left Majorca during the Spanish Civil War, • broke ties with Laura May 1939 – diary end• returned, after the Second World War, to Majorca with Beryl

Pritchard.• - remained in Majorca until his death in 1985

Deja 1935Gelat (with Robert’s dog Solomon), Gordon Glover, Laura Riding, Honour Wyatt, Mary Phillips, Karl

Goldschmidt, Robert Graves

Institutional goals in the diary project

• learn to mark-up a text and to present it in xml TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) – be able to advise faculty on TEI

• learn digitization and metadata through taking on a text project

• undertake something that will increase linkage with HMC and TAPor

• Strengthen links between Special Collections and the Humanities Departments

• Strengthen links between UVic Libraries and other repositories with Graves Collection in order to work together towards a world wide Union list of Graves with hyperlinks to Graves texts

• bring the Graves International Conference to Victoria to highlight the Graves collection and other important manuscript collections

Long terms Goals of the online edition of the dairy

• produce a reliable text which reflects the textual flavours of Graves’ texts while correcting errors.

• present a digital facsimile of the text which is available to the reader simultaneously so the reader can check the text for themselves.

• present explanatory material in way which does not distract the reader.

• incorporate changes suggested from contemporary and modern sources ie. William Graves’ notes and Karl Goldschmidt’s annotations.

• hyperlink references in the text to other primary sources that will help to elucidate and provide context

• http://web.uvic.ca/~lang09/graves_diary/

Diary Project Development Phase

1. Received from the Graves Trust ASCII files of a transcription of the diary created by Beryl Graves. Received Excel files on persons, and titles from William Graves.

2. 2002 Received study leave. Digitized the whole diary.3 documented digitization with a cross index linking date to file number.4. Traveled to U.N.B. and received tutorial from Lisa Charlong in TEI and xml

and using Notetab (free text editor) to mark-up diary: LIsa was also able to program the months and day entries into divs. in the matter of a few hours.

5. Hired an assitant to mark-up the diary in TEI. (TEI LIte) 6. Traveled to Oxford where Sebastian Rhatz provided a DTD (cooked up on

pizza chef) and xsl style sheets so that I could look at the markup completed so far.

7. Converted all monthly files to xml using a the template supplied by the Oxford Computing Centre.

8. Set up data bases in Access in which to store data on the persons, place and titles mentioned in the diary.

Dilemma: xml files or database files

• xml files are resilient, archivally sound

• offer the opportunity to markup the author’s accidental corrections, emendations, and paragraphing.

• however are slow to load

• presently somewhat unstable:-- client browsers may balk at xml coding

Relational Databases

• MySQL offer an open architecture which is quickly accessed over the web by all browsers

• MySQL offers dynamic searching• However the database table structure may

be difficult to preserve and document over time.

• Does not allow for complex systems of markup

Solution: xml DataBase like eXist?

• offers permanence of xml encoding.• offers flexibility of MySQL for delivering and searching.• runs on Apache/Tomcat and is written in Java.• is open source and so will require some development but

this has possibilities for many TaPor projects.• should allow us to create a database of all of the texts

and images relating to the diary which we can be searched or found through clear navigation and by simple and advanced keyword searching.

Future of the Diary Project 2003-2006

• applied for SSHRC scholarly research grant for 2004-2005 to finish the mark-up of the diary and complete research for the introductions and notes.

• Complete the Graves Diary Project for presentation at the International Graves conference in Victoria in 2006.

• Should TAPor apply for a Research Development Initiative SSHRC grant to develop eXist as a database to deliver the diary and other TAPor projects to the web? (deadline Dec.15th)