Wind in the Willows

1908. First Edition. GRAHAME, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen, (1908). Octavo, modern full green morocco gilt, gilt vignette of Mole, Toad, and Rat on front cover, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; original cloth bound in at rear. $5200.First edition of the beloved children's novel, ""one of the classic read-aloud books that should not be missed by any family"" (Silvey), handsomely bound by Asprey.""Unquestionable is the permanence, as an inspired and characteristically English contribution to children's literature, of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows… one of the most endearing books ever written for children… Part of the secret success of the book is that its appeal is ageless and parents never tire of reading it aloud. Like all great books it is inexhaustible"" (Eyre, 62). Grahame created his classic as a series of bedtime stories for his four-year-old son, Alastair, who was known as Mouse; yet it also became ""in many respects an elegy for the old idyllic English rural life which Grahame could now see was passing away forever"" (Carpenter & Prichard, 218). In a letter to Theodore Roosevelt, Grahame described the book as ""an expression of the very simplest of joys of life as lived by the simplest beings."" C.S. Lewis praised it as ""a perfect example of the kind of story which can express things without explaining them"" (Carpenter, 168). Pierpont Morgan Children's Literature 269. Scattered foxing, a few instances of very faint marginal dampstaining; mild toning to spine. A lovely copy.