Special Collections
Book of the Month, March 2008
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame; ill. by Ernest H. Shepard
London: Methuen, 1931
[S.L.] IV [Shepard – 1931]
‘Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats’, explains the Water Rat to Mole at the beginning of The Wind in the Willows: familiar words from a book first published 100 years ago which has become a classic of children’s fiction. Children read for the story; adults may read it for the lyrical language or as an account of the social change and destruction of rural England.
Like A.A. Milne’s Pooh stories, The Wind in the Willows began life as narratives to the author’s son: in Grahame’s case, bedtime stories told to the four-year-old Alastair (‘Mouse’) about ‘moles, giraffes & water-rats’ (animals selected by the lad) in 1904 and later stories in letter form, mainly about Toad, in 1907. The American Constance Smedley, European representative of the magazine Everybody’s, encouraged Grahame to write the work up for publication. After Grahame, with considerable effort, had done so, Everybody’s rejected it. Indeed, only with some reluctance did Methuen agree to publish the adventures of Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad; and Methuen indicated its reservations by not offering Grahame an advance. Initial critical responses to the work were generally negative, although A.A. Milne was to describe it as: ‘a household book, a cultural icon, and part of the world’s literary heritage’. Yet it soon gained a foothold, with 21 printings by 1926; a stage adaptation by A.A. Milne, Toad of Toad Hall, in 1929; and, much later, the animated Disney film Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949).
Except for a frontispiece, the first edition of The Wind in the Willows was not illustrated. This edition of 1931, limited to 200 copies signed by author and artist, is known for its illustrations by Ernest Shepard (1879-1976), who had made his name by illustrating the Pooh books. Shepard’s illustrations were the reason for Sir Louis Sterling’s purchase of the item for his collection of first and fine editions of English literature in Senate House Library – Sterling, who concentrated on works of fiction for older readers, placed it in the section of his library devoted to illustrated and extra-illustrated works, together with Grahame’s The Golden Age, also illustrated by Shepard.
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