Kenneth Grahame, 1908

The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame, 1908
GRAHAME, Kenneth (1859-1932). The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen, 1908.

One of the icons of classic children's literature: a fine first English edition of Grahame's masterpiece, in the rare first state dust jacket. The present jacket bears the price of six shillings on the upper panel. The price was increased to 7 and 6 on the second state jacket. "What had emerged [from Grahame's bedtime stories to his son Alistair] was no lighthearted story about a countryside community of animals but a long and ramifying fable ... the London publisher had been dubious about accepting so unclassifiable a book, putting it on his adult rather than his juveline list, and many reviewers were also baffled as to its likely readership" (Grolier Children's). The Wind in the Willows status as a beloved children's classic is now undoubted. Grolier Children's 61.

Octavo. Frontispiece by Graham Robertson (some spotting at ends, light offsetting to title-page). Publisher's pictorial blue-green cloth stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut (endpapers foxed, cloth very bright with just a hint of rubbing at extremities); dust jacket repeating the cover and spine designs in blue-green ink on a brown ground (repairs along flap folds, top edge and spine panel, about 3/5 of the spine panel in expert facsimile); custom green morocco clamshell case. Single sheet of publisher's advertisements laid in (spotted). Provenance: I.D. Margary (bookplate, most likely Ivan Margary, the British authority on Roman roads, 1896-1976).