The Wind in the Willows
INTRODUCTION
Kenneth Grahame’s life was marked by duality, personal disappointment, and loss, all of which, through temperament and imagination, he transformed in his work, the best known being the children’s classic The Wind in the Willows. The charming, memorable characters of Rat, Mole, and Toad find their origin in the author’s own experience; the book’s themes—the lure of travel, the affection for home, the virtues of friendship, the benevolence of nature—all spring from Grahame’s deepest human and artistic preoccupations.
Sometimes readers assume that a children’s book must owe its existence to a particular child the author knows, as in the instance of Lewis Carroll writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Alice Liddell or J. M. Barrie finding his inspiration for Peter Pan through his friendship with the Davies boys. While it is now probably more the exception than the rule, in Grahame’s case the assumption holds true; the first adventures of Toad grew from stories he told his son, Alastair, affectionately known as “Mouse.” The small, ordinary event of his son’s request for a bedtime story tapped deeply into Grahame’s psychic and imaginative life, enabling him to explore his deepest conflicts and longings in the extraordinary book he produced. It is perhaps because of this marriage of outer pressure with inner need that The Wind in the Willows, published in 1908, has survived. Its honesty and truth resonate with children and adults alike. Its sensual, poetic prose, so pleasurable to read, is informed by Grahame’s grasp and love of past literature, which is felt even when it is not visible.