Wind in the Willows

This reissue of the classic animal story featuring friends Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger celebrates the book's seventy-fifth anniversary.

In its Autumn 1908 catalog, Charles Scribner's Sons announced the publication of a novel, provisionally entitled The Wind in the Reeds, described by its author as "a book of youth—and so perhaps chiefly for youth, and those who still keep the spirit of youth alive in them." Seventy-five years later The Wind in the Willows has long been recognized as a classic.

Ernest Shepard's illustrations of Graham's "little people," as Grahame called them—Toad, Mole, Ratty, Badger, and the other beloved inhabitants of the River Bank—were first published in 1933. The story has become virtually inseparable from his charming pictures. Shepard's memoir, "Illustrating The Wind in the Willows," is contained in this edition.

In her informative, affectionate preface marking the anniversary, Margaret Hodges introduces the engaging "little people" to a new generation of readers.