Kenneth Grahame | The Wind in the Willows, 1908, first edition

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen and Co., 1908

FIRST EDITION, 8vo, frontispiece by Graham Robertson, original green pictorial cloth gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut, housed in modern green half morocco slipcase, lacking dust-jacket, slipcase slightly sunned

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS BOOKS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. "It can be seriously argued that [The Wind in the Willows] is not a children's book at all. Despite the presence of Rat, Toad, Mole, and Badger as central characters, it can be read as an account of threat of social change and the destruction of rural England, and of the response of a generation..." (Peter Hunt, ODNB). 

PROVENANCE:

"J. Richardson | 1913", ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper; "M.S. Slocum | Pasadena", pencil ownership inscription to front pastedown

LITERATURE:

Cahoon, Children's Literature no. 269