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Kenneth Grahame, 1908
Details
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame, 1908
GRAHAME, Kenneth (1859-1932). The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen & Co., [1908].
One of the icons of classic children's literature: the fine Benz copy of the first English edition of Grahame's masterpiece. "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 juvenile 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. The present copy, although the first English edition, is in a second state dust jacket, reflecting the price increase to 7 and 6 from six shilling on the upper panel. Grolier Children's 61.
Octavo. Frontispiece by Graham Robertson. Original pictorial blue-green cloth stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut (light spotting to endpapers, a hint of rubbing to cloth at foot of spine and to cover gilt); dust jacket repeating the cover and spine designs in blue-green ink on an orange ground (spine panel and folds toned, light edge-wear including tiny chips to spine panel ends). Quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Doris Louise Benz (morocco bookplate; her sale, Christie's New York, 16 November 1984, lot 152).
Kenneth Grahame, 1908
GRAHAME, Kenneth (1859-1932). The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen & Co., [1908].
One of the icons of classic children's literature: the fine Benz copy of the first English edition of Grahame's masterpiece. "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 juvenile 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. The present copy, although the first English edition, is in a second state dust jacket, reflecting the price increase to 7 and 6 from six shilling on the upper panel. Grolier Children's 61.
Octavo. Frontispiece by Graham Robertson. Original pictorial blue-green cloth stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut (light spotting to endpapers, a hint of rubbing to cloth at foot of spine and to cover gilt); dust jacket repeating the cover and spine designs in blue-green ink on an orange ground (spine panel and folds toned, light edge-wear including tiny chips to spine panel ends). Quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Doris Louise Benz (morocco bookplate; her sale, Christie's New York, 16 November 1984, lot 152).
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