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The Wind in the Willows. by KENNETH GRAHAME

Offered by: Shapero Gallery

Description
Stock Code 107245
London, Methuen and Co., 1908
£4,750

'The Wind in the Willows, is a far more interesting book than its popular and often juvenile audience might suggest. First, it is the work of a writer who had known considerable success in the 1890s as a young contemporary of Oscar Wilde, and who was also an admired contributor to the literary quarterly The Yellow Book. At that point, Grahame was employed by the Bank of England but, still in his 20s, was publishing stories in literary magazines, work that became collected in Dream Days (1895) and an even more successful publication, The Golden Age (1898).

The text of The Wind in the Willows also encrypts a family tragedy. In 1899, Grahame married and had one child, a boy named Alastair who was troubled with health problems and a difficult personality, culminating in the boy's eventual suicide, the cause of much parental anguish. When Grahame finally retired from the Bank secretary) in 1908, he could concentrate on the stories he had been telling his son, the stories of the Thames riverbank on which Grahame himself had grown up. So The Wind in the Willows is a tale steeped in nostalgia, and inspired by a father's love for his only son.' (Robert McCrum)

First edition; 8vo; frontispiece by Graham Robertson, occasional spotting and browning, slightly worn at extremities, otherwise very good; publisher's pictorial blue-green cloth stamped in gilt, leaves uncut (as published), some marks to binding, head and foot of spine bumped with minor tears, upper joint splitting, otherwise, also very good; preserved in a modern, bespoke dark blue morocco solander box.

Bibliography
Stock ID:107245

More Information

Origin:	England
Period:	1900-1919
Styles / Movements:	Traditional
Incollect Reference #:	586439

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