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Wind in the Willows (UK 1st Edition)

The Wind in The Willows | 1908 (First UK Edition)

Kenneth Grahame

$5,160.00

Condition: 8vo, 302pp. Hardcover in publisher’s olive green cloth with gilt decoration and title on both spine and front board with general wear on all edges and heavily bruised and worn corners and a tiny 1cm tear at top of spine on front board with spine edges battered but intact and also with a minor linear scuff across the front board and a pale stain to edge of rear board as well. Top edge gilt with rough cut bottom and fore-edges, the book being now protected with a removable clear archival covering, but with no d/w, however, Spine remains surprisingly firm with no loose or missing pages or even cracking or splitting of hinges, and there still remains an intact tissue guard on the only book illustration being the frontispiece by Grahame Robertson. However, there is brown staining of front and rear endpapers and prior ownership names in pencil on ffe,p plus most pages have either minor foxing or very faint remnants of small water stains, though this is not unsightly, with the overall condition of the book remaining very good or better.
Date Published: 1908
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Description

The first US edition is technically published four days earlier, and the Second UK edition was also printed in the same month and year too but this example is the more recognised ( and now increasingly rare) UK First edition, so sought after, worldwide. No explanation is necessary about the beloved characters, Mole, Toad, Ratty and Badger, remembering that it was not until 23 years later that Ernest Shepard did the first illustrations of these characters. Generally accepted to be one of those uncommon books that will increase further in value as the next century rolls on, it is almost a privilege to hold and read from this historical beauty with its wonderful “patina of age” that originated from the stories and letters written to Grahame’s fragile little boy Archie (“Mouse”), who tragically died in his twenties.

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