London, Methuen and Co., 1908
With the Exceptionally Rare Dust-Jacket
. First editions of this iconic title are rare and even more so in the dust-jacket. This example has some restoration to a few edges internally and to some extremities of the dust-jacket (see Description below), otherwise this makes a very presentable copy indeed.
'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 (as 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, slight toning and a few random spots to endpapers, professional repairs to irregularly cut edges on pp. 187, 253, 255, 265, 267 & 297, one closed tear to margin of p. 103, all these are at the extremities of the margins and not affecting the text, publisher's green pictorial cloth gilt, slight rubbing to extremities, top edge gilt, pictorial dust-jacket, exceptional professional restorations to spine, top edge and flap folds preserving a very good example.
. First editions of this iconic title are rare and even more so in the dust-jacket. This example has some restoration to a few edges internally and to some extremities of the dust-jacket (see Description below), otherwise this makes a very presentable copy indeed.
'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 (as 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, slight toning and a few random spots to endpapers, professional repairs to irregularly cut edges on pp. 187, 253, 255, 265, 267 & 297, one closed tear to margin of p. 103, all these are at the extremities of the margins and not affecting the text, publisher's green pictorial cloth gilt, slight rubbing to extremities, top edge gilt, pictorial dust-jacket, exceptional professional restorations to spine, top edge and flap folds preserving a very good example.
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