1950 Rare Book - The WIND IN THE WILLOWS. First Edition illustrated by Arthur RACKHAM.
(description)
Author: Grahame, Kenneth; MILNE, A. A. (introduction).
Title: The Wind in the Willows. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Publisher: London: Methuen and Co., 1950. First edition, first printing with Rackham illustrations.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 9.5 " X 6.5 ".
Pages: xii-178 pages.
Binding: Attractive and fine binding, elegantly bound in green half morocco leather over matching cloth sides (hinges fine) under a protective removable mylar cover. A beautiful binding!
Content: Near fine content (bright, clean, and tight - as shown, original cloth spine bound in the rear of the volume - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the wonderful 12 full-page color illustrations and several in-text line drawings by Arthur Rackham.
Estimate: (USD 750 - USD 850)
The book Rare and Attractive First edition illustrated by Rackham 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 illustrator: Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was a prolific British artist and illustrator, best known for his deluxe editions of popular children's books. Artistically inclined since childhood, Rackham started illustrating for newspapers, but it was not until he began drawing for children's literature that he received critical acclaim.
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.