1978 Beautifully Illustrated by Shepard & bound by Bayntun - THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame.
Author: Grahame, Kenneth. (Illustrator, Ernest H. Shepard).
Title: The Wind in the Willows Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.
Publisher: London, Methuen Children's Books., 1978. 101st edition with additional illustrations published 1951, reprinted eighteen times, reprinted 1978 (this copy).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 " X 5 ".
Pages: 320 pages
Binding: Attractive and near fine binding, finely bound by Bayntun-Riviere in green morocco, red and brown morocco labels, decoration to spine in gilt separated by raised bands, pictorial gilt motif to front board in gilt, twin rule to boards in gilt, inner dentelles in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. (Hinges fine). Under a protective removable mylar cover. An elegant and beautiful binding by Bayntun-Riviere!
Content: Fine content (bright, clean, and tight - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the wonderful black and white illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard.
Estimate: (USD 600 - USD 1200)
The book Beautiful edition illustrated by Shepard of The Wind in the Willows -- a children's book by Scottish novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternatingly slow-moving and fast-paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphized animals: Mole, Rat (a European water vole), Toad, and Badger. They live in a pastoral version of Edwardian England. In 1908 Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved back to Berkshire, where he had lived as a child, and spent his time by the River Thames, doing much as the animal characters in his book do – to quote, "simply messing about in boats" – and expanding the bedtime stories he had earlier told his son Alastair into a manuscript for the book.
The most popular illustrations for this book are probably by E. H. Shepard, originally published in 1931, and believed to be authorized as Grahame was pleased with the initial sketches, though he did not live to see the completed work.
The illustrator: Ernest Howard Shepard OBE, MC (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the anthropomorphic animal and soft toy characters in The Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh.
The author: Kenneth Grahame (8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a Scottish family. He is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall, based on part of The Wind in the Willows, was the first. Other adaptations include the Disney films The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon.
The binder: George Bayntun was born in 1873 in Bath, England. After an apprenticeship, he began his own bookbinding business in Bath in 1894, binding books by hand with great craftsmanship. Although many binders were using machines in their process, Bayntun refused to use modern techniques.