Kenneth Grahame | The Wind in the Willows, 1931, one of 200 copies signed by author and illustrator, dust-jacket

Kenneth Grahame—E.H. Shepard

The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen & Co., 1931

4to (224 x 183mm.), NUMBER 4 OF 200 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR, illustrations by E.H. Shepard, folding map at rear, original green buckram-backed boards, paper label on spine, leaves uncut, DUST-JACKET, custom blue cloth case, endpapers slightly browned, extremities and spine label slightlyspotted, dust-jacket with two small closed tears at spine ends, a fine copy 

E.H. Shepard visited Kenneth Grahame in 1930 to discuss new illustrations for The Wind in the Willows. In The Horn-Book for April 1954 Shepard recalled details of his interview with the elderly author:

"Not sure about his new illustrator of his book, he listened patiently while I told him what I hoped to do. Then he said 'I love these little people, be kind to them'. Just that; but sitting forward in his chair, resting upon the arms, his fine handsome head turned aside, looking like some ancient Viking, warming, he told me of the river nearby, of the meadows where Mole broke ground that spring morning, of the banks where Rat had his house, of the pool where Otter hid, and of Wild Wood way up on the hill above the river. ...He would like, he said, to go with me to show me the river bank that he knew so well, '...but now I cannot walk so far and you must find your way alone'."

Peter Green notes, in his biography of Grahame, that the author was 'delighted (as countless children and adults have been) by the drawings Mr. Shepard produced'.