---

This wonderful book has been sold!
Search for other similar books from our bookseller friends!

---

(Description)

Author: Grahame, Kenneth. (Illustrator, Ernest H. Shepard).
Title: The Wind in the Willows Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.
Publisher: London: Methuen & Co. LTD., 1931. First edition, first printing with Illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 " X 5 ". 
Pages: 312 pages + Illustrated map.
Binding: Attractive and fine binding signed by Bayntun-Riviere, finely bound in green morocco leather, the covers tooled in gilt with a single fillet border, the spine paneled in gilt with gilt lettering and date. Gilt center tools of Ratty, Toad & Mole. Front cover board with a large gilt block of the same characters. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. (Hinges fine). Under a protective removable mylar cover. An exquisite and beautiful binding by Bayntun-Riviere!
Content: Near fine content (bright, clean, and tight - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the wonderful black and white illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard and the endpaper map at the end.

Estimate: (USD 2500 - USD 3000)

The book: Rare and very beautiful First edition illustrated by Shepard of The Wind in the Willows in an elegant Bayntun-Riviere binding! -The Wind in the Willows is 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.